Princeton Soccer Player Released In Russian Prisoner Swap, Reports Say

The swap allows Evan Gershkovich, a Princeton native, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, to return home.

Gershkovich, 32, was allegedly trying to obtain classified information, and was detained in Yekaterinburg, Russia's Federal Security Service said in March 2023, as reported by Daily Voice.

Gershkovich is reportedly the first American correspondent to be detained on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War. In 1986, U.S. News and World Report reporter Nicholas Daniloff was arrested by the KGB.

After a hasty trial behind closed doors, Gershkovich was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in a high-security prison, ABC reported.

Gershkovich was the captain of the Princeton High School's soccer team and earned four varsity letters before graduating in 2010, the same year his team won the New Jersey Group III State Championship. He was listed as as third-team all-state in 2009.

The athlete played club soccer for Princeton Union, where he helped to lead the team to the New Jersey State Championship and Region I Semifinals in 2007, Bowdoin's athletics department said.

Gershkowitz's Instagram page shows he played in a Russian club hockey team and in his free time, enjoyed touring the country.

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