The last few weeks have brought a mix of farewells and fresh starts. The de Brouwer twins close a historic chapter, new coaches take the reins, and some athletes shake things up ahead of the next season. Here’s what’s been happening.

Retirements

• Paris Olympic bronze medalists Bregje and Noortje de Brouwer have announced the end of their artistic swimming careers. The twins, two-time Olympians, have been representing the Netherlands on the senior stage since 2017. 2024 was undoubtedly their most successful season, as they won bronze in duet at the Olympic Games, became two-time European Champions in the duet routines, and also clinched silver in free duet at the World Championships.

After searching extensively since Paris, today we are officially ending our elite sports career. A career that began when we were 5 years old and took a leap forward after our first Dutch title in 2010 with an invitation to the training center […] Twenty-one years of dedication, perseverance, hope, but above all hard work were rewarded with one historic achievement after another.

There is so much to be thankful for and yet today we say goodbye for good, not to sports but to constantly striving for more, better and pushing boundaries. Boundaries that we have crossed without really going through, which proved to be more and more difficult to recover. That’s why we choose to stop at our peak, without knowing what actually our peak is. But one thing is certain: Paris has rounded out our top sports career!

For us, it is now time to step out of our long-standing bubble and dive into a different context to search for a new beginning of something beautiful again. But synchronized swimming, in whatever form, will always be part of that.”

• Ambre Esnault, team captain of France‘s national team over the last few years, has announced her retirement. A 2024 Olympian, Esnault became European Champion in acrobatic team in 2023, and collected six European medals (1G, 5B) during her career. The 23-year-old competed in four World Championships (2019, 2022, 2023, 2025) and three European Championships (2022, 2023, 2025).
• San Marino‘s Jasmine Verbena has officially said goodbye to the pool. The 25-year-old had been representing her small state on the senior stage since 2019, competing in five World Championships and four European Championships. In 2025, she won two gold medals in solo at the Games of Small States of Europe

 

Coaching carousel 

• Paula Klamburg has stepped down from her head coaching position with the Australian national team, and was named as assistant coach to the U.S.A senior national team. She joins newly-appointed head coach Megan Abarca and returning assistant coach Marivi Escalona to lead the American atheltes as they work towards LA2028.
• ICYMI, Andrea Fuertes (with a R) has been tapped to lead the Australia artistic swimming team.
• Elvira Khasyanova, three-time Olympic Champion for Russia, is the new head coach of the Stanford artistic swimming program. She takes over the role previously held by Megan Abarca, recenly named new head coach of Team USA. Khasyanova is no stranger to the program, having served as an assistant coach for the previous seven seasons.

Club carousel

• Romane Temessek, 2023 World Youth Champion in solo and France’s soloist for the 2025 European and World Championships, has joined the club of C.N. Granollers in Spain. The club stated she’ll compete with its junior team on the Spanish circuit this year, and that she has already been training full-time at Barcelona’s ‘Joaquim Blume’ Sports Technification Center, a hub where young athletes balance elite-level training with their studies. Now, what this means for her INSEP status or in what capacity we’ll see her compete for France this season… your guess is as good as ours. But honestly, we’re absolutely here for this move. It’s bold, refreshing, and very much a swimming or water polo kind of decision — rare in artistic swimming, where the obvious team setup makes it harder to pull off. A year in Spain can only elevate her artistry, style, and personal growth, and we can’t wait to see how it shapes the next chapter of her journey.

Recognition Abroad

• Anna Tarres has received the Friendship Award 2025, a prestigious recognition given by the Chinese government to 50 foreign experts. She received this award thanks to the determining role she has played as a collaborator with the Chinese artistic swimming team in the lead-up to the Paris Olympic Games, where China won two gold medals in duet and team.
• Swiss artistic swimmers Anna-Sophia Aeschbacher, Melody Halbeisen and Aimée Michel were invited by the Swiss Embassy to showcase their talent at this year’s Swiss Art Night in New Delhi, India.

 

ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET

If you’ve enjoyed our coverage, please consider donating to Inside Synchro! Any amount helps us run the site and travel costs to cover meets during the season.