The start of the year brings its share of shifts, with retirements, coaching moves, and new team rosters. While some athletes take a step back, others prepare for the season ahead. Here are the latest updates from January.

Retirements

• Oriane Jaillardon of France has announced her retirement: “After 11 years devoted to my sport, I decided to retire. It was a complicated but well-considered choice.” Jaillardon particularly shone on the junior stage, winning two bronze medals at the World Junior Championships in 2022 and eight medals in total across three European Junior Championships. On the senior stage, she notably competed in solo at two World Championships, and became a European bronze medalist in 2022.
• Yasunaga Mashiro of Japan is also retiring, an announcement made in the midst of the news of the recent national team roster and coaching changes. Yasunaga is a two-time Olympian, and was a world champion in technical duet in 2023. She leaves the sport as an eight-time world medalist and a three-time Asian Games silver medalist.

Coaches Without Borders

• Anna Voloshyna, who recently officially announced her collaboration with the Italian national team as a choreographer, has also worked with Germany‘s Amélie Blumenthal-Haz on her new free solo choreography. The two met up at the Santa Clara Aquamaids club, where Voloshyna is a coach.
• Esther Jauma, coach of Olympic bronze medalists Bregje and Noortje de Brouwer, traveled to Malta to work with its senior duet on a new free choreography. Ana Culic and Thea Grima Buttigieg also got to work with Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Polina Komar during that training camp.
• Hiea-Yoon Kang has been named coach of the Greek junior national team. Kang was part of the national team coaching staff in the U.S. for over a decade across various age groups, and most recently served as the assistant coach to the senior team. She was suspended from her position shortly after the 2024 Paris World Cup, and is currently under investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport for allegedly physically, emotionally and verbally abusing young swimmers.

 

Best Artistic Swimmers of 2024 Awards

• Gustavo Sanchez of Colombia was designated Best Artistic Swimming Male Athlete of 2024 by World Aquatics.
• The winner of the World Aquatics Best Artistic Swimming Female Athlete of 2024 still hasn’t been announced.
• Vasiliki Alexandri of Austria was voted Best Female Artistic Swimmer at the European Aquatics Athlete of the Year Awards 2024.
• On the men’s side, Giorgio Minisini of Italy earned the Best Male Artistic Swimmer title from European Aquatics.

New Year, New Team

• Great Britain has announced its senior team roster for 2025. The list notably includes Olympic silver medalists Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe, as well as European Champion Ranjuo Tomblin. European team free bronze medalists Florence Blinkhorn, Holly Hughes, Sophie Rowney, Robyn Swatman, Amelie Williams and Eve Young also return.
• As always, Japan likes to be ahead and has already unveiled its roster for this summer’s World Championships. The squad includes Olympians Higa Moe — who is expected to make her senior solo debuts —, Kobayashi Uta and Sato Tomoka, as well as Olympic reserve Fujii Moka. The squad is expected in the woman’s solo, duet and team events (no mixed duet, unfortunately).

 

ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET

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