Two-time Olympic medalist Arkady Vyatchanin has given up on his bid to swim at the Rio Games after FINA denied his request to represent Serbia.
The 32-year-old Russian, who won a pair of bronze medals in the backstroke events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had a falling out with his country's national federation over training disputes and concerns about potential doping issues.
Now based in the United States, Vyatchanin didn't compete at the last two world championships and hoped that switching his citizenship to Serbia would give him a chance to swim in his third Olympics. But he recently received a letter from FINA saying he didn't comply with rules requiring him to live in his new country for a year, which he maintained was not financially possible because he relies mostly on prize money from the U.