World Record Holder Andrii Govorov Announces Retirement
Ukrainian world record holder Andrii Govorov announced his retirement from swimming on Monday, taking with him the world record in the 50 butterfly.
Govorov made the announcement on social media. One of the swimmers who figured to most benefit from the addition of the 50-meter strokes to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the 33-year-old referenced that aspiration directly in his farewell post.
View this post on Instagram
Govorov wrote:
This choice wasn’t easy.
I spent a long time reflecting — putting everything I care about on the scale.
Competing in Los Angeles was my dream.
But life had other plans.
The biggest swim of Govorov’s career came at the Sette Colli meet in 2018, when he went 22.27 in the men’s 50 butterfly, a record that has outlasted his career. He had won bronze in that event the year prior at the World Championships in Budapest.
In addition to the long-course Worlds bronze, Govorov has a silver and a bronze from short-course Worlds. He’s a five-time European champion, winning the 50 fly at the 2016 and 2018 long-course editions and three iterations of the European Short-Course Championships. He has 14 total continental medals (five gold, four silver, five bronze) in long- and short-course competition in the World Championships. He also has gold medals at the World University Games, the Youth Olympics and the European Junior Championships.
Govorov last swam at the Olympics in 2016. He set the fastest time in prelims of the 50 free but ended up nearly three tenths slower in finals in fifth in 21.74, his times in prelims and semifinals worthy of the podium. He was eliminated in semifinals of the 50 free at the 2012 Olympics.
Govorov is a native of Sevastopol, in the Ukrainian region of Crimea that was annexed by Russia in 2014. His training base for many years was in Dnipro, not far from the front in the current iteration of his home country’s war with Russia.