Estonian swimmer Kregor Zirk splits Olympic preparations across four countries
Estonia's top men's swimmer Kregor Zirk is set to divide his preparations for this summer's Olympics in Paris across four different countries. Zirk will also make his European Championship debut in Belgrade in June.
24-year-old Zirk, who finished fifth in the final of the men's 200m butterfly at the World Aquatic Championships in Doha this February, will train in Turkey, Hong Kong, and Slovakia as well as Estonia, in the final few months before the Paris Olympics.
"It's much cheaper for me to fly to Hong Kong and train there than to do it in Tallinn," said Zirk. "Renting a single lane in Tallinn is still unrealistically expensive and undoubtedly at the top of Europe in terms of prices. Unfortunately, our leading sporting organizations don't want to make the effort either, but I'm trying to find solutions and am not thinking about the problems."
Another reason is that as Zirk is part of an international training group, everyone has to be taken into account when considering the preparation schedule. Zirk also wants to train under the watchful eye of his coach Tom Rushton as much as possible prior to the Olympics.
"We have such a unique training group and everyone wants to do their best in the run-up to the Olympics. I'll get to train with my coach in Hong Kong, on the Mare Nostrum tour at the end of May, then in Slovakia for a couple of weeks after the European Championships. He'll also be in Tallinn before we head to Paris," Zirk said of Rushton.
Zirk is looking forward to the Olympics, with the added excitement of competing against fellow Estonian Eneli Jefimova to put in the best performance at the games. "At the moment, I have [Estonia's] best result in the Olympics and the World Championships to my name, but I'm more than sure Eneli will want to beat them," said Zirk, who finished 13th in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, while Jefimova was 14th in her event.
"On a more serious note, the goal is to come back from the Olympics having achieved best result of any Estonian swimmer. It's pretty pointless to predict the place, because at this level it depends quite a lot on the competitors. I will try to put my preparation into practice and I want to be proud of my performance after the Olympics," Zirk added.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Kristjan Kallaste, Michael Cole
