Over 180 young athletes from 23 Member Federations are ready to take the Olympic Aquatic Center of Athens by storm in this year’s European Aquatics Youth Artistic Swimming Championships.
From May 23 to 26, artistic swimmers aged between 13 and 15 years old (16 for male athletes) will compete across six routine events as well as a Figures competition, in this first European Youth Championships held under the new artistic swimming scoring system.
Last time out in Montceau-les-Mines in 2022, France had finished at the top of the medal rankings with five golds (Figures, Women Solo, Men Solo, Duet Free, Mixed Duet Free), two silvers (Team Free, Highlight) and a bronze (Figures).
The country is entered in every event this year, and will be one to watch once again, especially as it is led by Romane Temessek, the reigning World Youth Champion in Solo Free. Athens may very well be a lucky city for the 15-year-old since she clinched her first World title in the Greek capital last summer.
Another promising athlete to watch on this French squad is Macéo Vanhee-Dedieu, competing internationally for the first time. A multiple-time national champion in the U-12 and Youth categories, the 13-year-old was essentially born into the sport, encouraged by his mother Virginie Dedieu, three-time World Champion, Olympic bronze medalist, and France’s most famous artistic swimmer.
Athletes representing Italy and Spain will surely look to repeat the performances from 2022, where each federation had respectively won seven (2G, 4S, 1B) and six medals (1G, 2S, 3B). Spain’s Eneko Sanchez Aguilar, reigning European bronze medalist and world silver medalist in Mixed Duet Free, will look to continue his climb up the podium in Athens.
Naturally, the team of Greece will also want to leave a mark on home soil. The nation earned bronze in Free Combination in 2022, and was also impressive last year at the World Youth Championships in front of friends and families, winning gold in Duet Free and silver in Free Combination. Although the vast majority of these athletes will not compete again here, this new generation of Greek athletes undoubtedly aims to continue the momentum and stand on the podium at home too.
Finally, while pairs of siblings and twins are common occurrences in artistic swimming, triplets are extremely rare. In Athens, a new family of triplet artistic swimmers will make its debut on the European stage, this time featuring one young man and two young women.
Representing Poland, the Kasprzyk triplets, all 14 years old, already competed in the 2023 World Youth Championships and can be expected here across the Mixed Duet and Team Free events. Kacper Kasprzyk and Zoja Syty also made history last year by being the first-ever Polish mixed duet to appear in a major artistic swimming international competition.
Follow all the action live on European Aquatics’ website and European Aquatics TV, starting on Thursday at 10:00 with the Women’s Solo Free Preliminaries.
ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET
Cover photo: JSL/Philippe MONPERRUS
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