Yevgeny Rylov, who won two Olympic gold medals in Tokyo last year, was one of several Russian sports stars who entered the stage and was hailed by Vladimir Putin in front of tens of thousands of people at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

The event was organized by the President of Russia to commemorate the anniversary of the conquest of the Crimean peninsula in March 2014. In addition, the ongoing invasion of Ukraine was celebrated.

No Russians at the World Cup

Rylov, who had a Z (symbolizing support for the Russian troops) on his clothes during the performance, was quickly punished by his main sponsor, who broke off cooperation with the Russian.

Now the International Swimming Federation has decided to suspend Rylov for nine months.

"This is because of Mr.

Rylov's participation and behavior during the event at Luzhniki Stadium on March 8, 2022. Mr Rylov's suspension began on April 20, 2022 ", Fina writes on the organization's website.

At the same time, Fina, who has already stopped Russian and Belarusian swimmers from this summer's World Cup, believes that swimmers and judges from these countries will not be invited to Fina-arranged competitions and events for the rest of the year.

MORE SWIMMING: World Year Best by Sjöström (April 11):

Javascript is disabled

Javascript must be turned on to play video

Read more about browser support

The browser is not supported

SVT does not support playback in your browser.

We therefore recommend that you switch to a different browser.

Read more about browser support

New world year best by Sjöström in Swim Open