SK108 Ilya Shymanovich

In this episode, we talk to Ilya Shymanovich, the breaststroke superstar who’s dominated in the short course pool, breaking the World Record multiple times, has close to 40 wins in his ISL career, is the 2021 Short Course World Champion, while also making the Olympic final.

Ilya is from Belarus and athletes from Belarus and Russia have been banned from competing at this year’s World Championships and the European Championships, which would have been the “A” meets for Ilya, so his season plans are now in flux.

We talked with Ilya about his stroke technique, which is somewhat controversial in that he’s among a group of breaststrokers who use an undulating hip motion paired with a very narrow and quick kick, which can look like a dolphin kick. We asked Ilya about the origins of this technique, the controversy around it, and also how he practices it to keep it within the rules.

Enjoy!