Olympic swimming medalist Arkady Vyatchanin will compete for the United States. He had a conflict with the coach of the Russian national team

Swimmer Arkady Vyatchanin, who became a two-time Olympic medalist in the Russian team, received the right to compete for the United States.

In 2013, the athlete had a conflict with the Russian Swimming Federation. The head coach of the national team Anatoly Zhuravlev called the training plan provided by Vyatchanin "a mockery".

Later, a problem arose with participation in the Russian Cup, through which members of the team are selected for the World Cup. As they said in the federation, the athlete did not get in touch. The swimmer himself claimed that no one contacted him. Vyatchanin spoke and won the competition, and then announced his retirement from the Russian team.

In 2015, he received Serbian citizenship, but missed the World Cup and the Olympics. According to the rules of the international federation, an athlete must live in a new country for a year and play for local clubs. Vyatchanin said that he had to play for the New York club, since the Serbian national team had no funding.

In August 2017, the swimmer received US citizenship.

• Vyatchanin is 33 years old, he is a two-time Olympic medalist, a seven-time winner of the European Championship. At the world championships, his best result was silver medals.