Paris 2026: Girls’s open water swimming preview

A complete of 46 ladies will take to the River Seine for 4 days of open water swimming motion on the European Aquatics Championships 2026, with 4 gold medals up for grabs throughout as many days.

In what seems to be to be one of the open fields in recent times, there are medal shouts from arguably near a dozen athletes.

At final yr’s European Open Water Swimming Championships in Stari Grad, Croatia, Viktória Mihalyvari-Farkas produced one of many tales of the meet, profitable the ladies’s 10km title solely the second time she had ever raced the occasion.

A pool swimmer by background and the 2022 European 400m particular person medley champion, the Hungarian surged from eleventh to first over the closing laps to say gold, and she or he returns to defend her title within the River Seine in each the 5km and the 10km occasions, in addition to with compatriot Bettina Fabian within the combined staff relay.

She will once more face Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci, the Paris 2024 Olympic 10km bronze medallist, who completed simply behind Mihalyvari-Farkas in Croatia to take silver.

Taddeucci turned the tables within the 5km a number of days earlier, holding off the Hungarian to win gold by lower than two seconds, and the pair look poised to resume their rivalry throughout each distances in Paris. Taddeucci is entered in all 4 open water occasions on the programme – the identical because the Hungarian plus the 3km knockout dash occasion.

Italy deliver additional firepower by means of the likes of Barbara Pozzobon and Giulia Berton, as their six-strong ladies’s staff will take to the water with excessive hopes.

Spain’s Clara Martinez de Salinas Pena, Angela Martinez Guillén and Candela Sanchez Lora give Spain a robust hand throughout the person distances and relay as all of them kind a robust contingent from the nation who look to be taking their possibilities at a medal very critically.

Hungary’s Bettina Fabian, who gained the inaugural ladies’s 3km knockout dash title in Croatia forward of Spain’s Paula Otero Fernandez, returns to defend that title in Paris. Otero Fernandez, the silver medallist, is once more entered within the occasion and will probably be certainly one of Fabian’s closest challengers over the quick, segmented format.

France’s Caroline Jouisse and Ines Delacroix headline the house staff, each entered throughout the complete programme, whereas Monaco’s Lisa Pou, a two-time European 10km finalist and 10km bronze medallist eventually yr’s World Championships returns to compete over all three particular person occasions as soon as extra.

One of the extra unknown portions will probably be Neutral Athletes B, with lots of the athletes making their senior European Championships debuts. Polina Koziakina stands as one of many staff’s brightest prospects heading into the competitors. Having medalled at each the 2025 and 2026 Junior Championships, she seems to be well-positioned to make an actual impression this time.

Ekaterina Sorokina rounds out the ladies’s contenders as one other sturdy candidate. A well-known title on the circuit for a number of seasons now, she has persistently proven a knack for placing herself in rivalry when it counts most.

Also aggressive would be the German staff. Julia Ackermann, who lower than two weeks in the past took the European junior title within the 3km knockout dash, will make the step as much as senior stage in each the 5km and combined staff relay occasions. Isabel Gose, who was topped world champion final yr in that relay occasion, will return to attempt to take the European crown alongside Ackermann, in addition to going within the 3km knockout dash.

Turkey’s Su Inal, Tuna Erdogan and Gocke Ozturk even have the potential to make inroads. With all athletes nonetheless of their teenage years, they may possible look to make use of this competitors as a possibility to swim with out concern and to upset the extra established names.

Hungary will defend the combined relay title they gained in Stari Grad, the place Mihalyvari-Farkas and Fabian mixed with David Betlehem and Kristof Rasovszky to edge out Italy and France for gold by simply two seconds. Taddeucci, who swam for Italy’s silver-medal quartet, returns to steer the Italian problem, whereas France’s Clemence Coccordano and Delacroix will once more possible anchor a house staff that completed agonisingly near gold final yr.

Elsewhere, Great Britain’s Amelie Blocksidge and the Netherlands’ Hedwig Bolt are among the many youthful names entered over 10km, whereas Poland’s Klaudia Tarasiewicz, a European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Cup winner in 2025, is entered throughout the 3km knockout, 5km and 10km looking for a primary Championship medal.

Open water swimming on the European Aquatics Championships Paris 2026 will happen within the River Seine from August 4 to eight, with the ladies’s 10km on day one, the 5km on day two, the 3km knockout dash on day 4 and the combined 4x1500m relay closing the programme on day 5, with day three held as a contingency.

Click right here for the occasion web page, which incorporates all begin lists and outcomes.

Click here to watch all of the action on Eurovision Sport.

Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics