From the high wire to the pool
Sports business major and Canadian Olympic swimmer Ilya Kharun practices the butterfly stroke during swim practice on July 3 at ASU's Mona Plummer Aquatic Center on the Tempe campus. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU
Arizona State University swimming and diving coach Herbie Behm didn’t truly know how well-known Ilya Kharun’s family is until he checked the team into a Seattle-area hotel for the Pac-12 championships.
Each of the team members had their names written on a key card. When the hotel clerk handed Kharun’s card to Behm, he asked, “Is this one related to the Cirque du Soleil Kharun’s?”
Maroon and gold medals
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“I was like, ‘Actually, yeah,’” Behm said.
Kharun, an incoming sophomore majoring in sports business at ASU, is the son of Valeriy and Oksama Kharun, who were longtime acrobats in Cirque du Soleil. His sister, Dasha, performs in Cirque’s "Joya" show in Cancun.
When the swimming competition begins in the Summer Olympic Games, however, it’s Ilya who could become the most famous member of the family.
Ilya Kharun, who was born in Montreal and lived there for only a few months before his parents moved to Las Vegas, will represent Canada in the 100-meter butterfly and the 200-meter butterfly, an event in which he’s ranked sixth in the world.
“I definitely plan to podium (win a medal) in the 200 fly,” Kharun said. “The 100 fly is going to be very difficult, so I just plan for the best for that one. But the 200 fly, I don’t want to sound cocky, but I would say I definitely have a chance of being on the podium in that.”
Kharun says his mother retired from Cirque du Soleil after he was born, and what he mostly remembers about his dad’s performance was in a show called “The Beatles Love,” which, according to Wikipedia, “combined the re-produced and re-imagined music of the Beatles with an interpretive, circus-based artistic and athletic stage performance."
“My dad was in the Lucy In The Sky (With Diamonds) act,” Kharun said. “I think he was like a fireman. He had a huge ladder, and there was just a girl in the air.”
Also, Ilya's grandmother was a gymnastics coach in Ukraine. The family genes are evident in the way he swims.
“He has this mobility in a lot of places that most people don’t,” Behm said. “Like the way he moves his spine and just the control he has that allows him to kick underwater really well. In the butterfly, when he gets tired, he can keep his legs up where most people have to kick to get them back up. It’s like he can just arch his spine almost and keep them at the surface.”
Also unique is Kharun’s combination of speed and endurance. Behm said he’s the only swimmer to go under 19 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle and under 15 minutes swimming the mile freestyle.
“He has a capacity,” Behm said. “He doesn’t get tired.”
Kharun’s parents didn’t just pass along their athletic DNA. They imparted life lessons that Kharun recalls every time a workout or race just seems too daunting.
“They told me when I was young to keep working hard and to have a good mindset because swimming is half physical and half mental," he said. "If you don’t have it mentally, then you can’t really go on. So, thank God, from a young age they taught me to keep my mind positive. Because if you become negative, you just bring yourself down and others around you down.”
The question is, how did the grandson of a gymnastics coach and the son of acrobats wind up underwater?
Kharun said his parents wanted him to try different sports and enrolled him a swimming class when he was 4 years old. He was in his element almost immediately, his mother telling him years later that he was “better kicking than the other little boys in preschool.”
He fell in love with swimming after watching Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte win multiple gold medals, so when Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman, recruited Kharun to come to ASU, he was sold.
And he remained sold even after Bowman left ASU to become coach at the University of Texas.
“It was really difficult,” Kharun said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. But I wanted to trust Herbie rather than move. I had made all my friends here, too. So I just decided to stay with Herbie. And to be honest, I think it was a really good decision. This is home.”
So the swimmer who calls Tempe home and was born in Montreal and lived in Las Vegas most of his life will try to win gold in Paris.
Do that, and the hotel clerk will know his name.
Sun Devil Olympians
Ilya Kharun isn't the only Sun Devil competing in the Paris Olympics this year. Here's a list of past and present Sun Devils who have qualified for the Games.
Men’s swimming
Tiago Behar, Switzerland, 4x200 meter freestyle relay, ASU senior
Ilya Kharun, Canada, 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, ASU sophomore
Léon Marchand, France, 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly, 200m breaststroke, competed at ASU from 2021–24
Max McCusker, Ireland, 4x100m medley relay, competed at ASU from 2022–23
Tolu Young, Fiji, 50m freestyle, ASU incoming freshman
Women’s golf
Carlota Ciganda, Spain, played at ASU from 2007–11
Alessandra Fanali, Italy, played at ASU from 2018–22
Alexandra Försterling, Germany, played at ASU from 2018–21
Linn Grant, Sweden, played at ASU from 2019–21
Azahara Muñoz, Spain, played at ASU from 2006–09
Men’s golf
David Puig, Spain, played at ASU from 2020–22
Jon Rahm, Spain, played at ASU from 2012–16
Kevin Yu, Chinese Tapei, played at ASU from 2016–20
Women’s soccer
Gabi Rennie, New Zealand, played at ASU from 2022–23
Women’s water polo
Blaire McDowell, Canada, played at ASU from 2019–22
Bente Rogge, Netherlands, played at ASU from 2017–21
Lieke Rogge, Netherlands, played at ASU in 2019
Mia Rycraw, France, played at ASU from 2014–18
Women’s tennis
Desirae Krawczyk, United States, played at ASU from 2013–16
Men’s basketball
Lu Dort, Canada, played at ASU in 2019
Women’s basketball
Promise Amukamara, Nigeria, played at ASU from 2012–15
Track and field
Beatrice Nedberge Llano, Norway, hammer throw, competed for ASU from 2019–22
Dubem Nwachukwu, Nigeria, track and field, competed for ASU from 2019–21
Jorinde van Klinken, Netherlands, shot put, competed for ASU from 2021–23
Women’s wrestling
Kennedy Blades, United States, ASU undergraduate (doesn't compete for ASU because there isn't a women's team)
Learn more about these student-athletes at thesundevils.com.
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