The stage is set for a landmark European Aquatics Championships, as Paris prepares to welcome the continent’s best aquatic athletes for the 2026 edition, one that will mark the centenary of the competition.
It will also be the first time the European Championships have been held in France since Strasbourg hosted the event in 1987, while Paris itself will welcome the Championships for the first time since 1931.
Among the five aquatic disciplines, artistic swimming will get the action underway on 31 July at the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, the same venue that hosted the sport during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Across the six days that follow, athletes from 22 Member Federations will compete for 11 European titles.
All gold medal winners from the 2025 European Championships in Funchal return to defend their titles. But with a busy World Cup season already in the books, the competition promises to be particularly open, with the reigning champions facing a host of new and established challengers.
Spain arrives as the team to beat. In Funchal, the Spaniards claimed the Championships Trophy after winning medals in all 11 events, including five gold medals.
The Spanish team, which won Olympic bronze in this same pool, has competed only once so far this season at the Pontevedra World Cup, but its international record remains formidable.
At the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, Spain was the top European nation, winning nine medals, including three golds. 23-year-old Iris Tio contributed to all three victories there, and will be one of the headline names in Paris alongside Dennis Gonzalez her partner in the free mixed duet where they are the reigning European and World Champions.
Both Spaniards were named European Aquatics Artistic Swimmers of 2025, while Tio Casas also received the same honour from World Aquatics after her performance in Singapore.
Tio will likely be the busiest athlete in Paris as she is scheduled to compete in seven events, including the three she’s a reigning World Champion in on the same day. On the other hand, Gonzalez should appear in “only” three routines for the nation, as he has been making his way back from a shoulder surgery earlier this year.
All in all, Spain is expected to contend for medals across all 11 events as it looks to build on its extraordinary run of consistency, memorable and exciting routines, and success since head coach Andrea Fuentes took over in the fall of 2024.
One of the biggest challenges to Spain is expected to come from the Russian athletes, who will compete under the Neutral Athletes B designation and who will return to the European senior stage for the first time since 2021.
The team is expected to compete across all 11 events as well, and will be led by veterans Mayya Doroshko, two-time World Champion, and Elizaveta Minaeva, four-time World Junior Champion and 10-time European Junior Champion.
The Neutral Athletes B won two bronze medals in the duet events, as well as silver medals in the technical team and acrobatic team at last year’s World Championships. Since then, however, the team has undergone significant changes.
Seven-time Olympic Champion Svetlana Romashina has taken over as head coach and brought in a new staff, a revised roster, refreshed routines and a new, modern vision already producing impressive results. Their gold-winning performances at the World Cups in Paris and Xi’an have shown that they will arrive in the French capital with serious medal and title ambitions.
The delegation will also feature one of the most promising young mixed duets in the field, with three-time European Junior Champions Zakhar Trofimov and Alina Rumiantseva looking to make their mark on the senior stage.
Trofimov will also be a serious contender in the men’s solos events. The 19-year-old will actually be the first-ever Russian athlete to compete in these events on the European stage, as they were first added in the senior championships programme only in 2022.
Italy will also be among the leading nations in Paris across all 11 events. The Italians are the reigning European Champions in the duet free and team acrobatic events, and claimed eight medals overall in Funchal.
Olympians Enrica Piccoli and Lucrezia Ruggiero, the reigning European Champions and World Championship silver medalists in duet free, will be among the names to watch. 19-year-old Filippo Pelati will also be one to keep an eye on after winning solo bronze at the World Championships and claiming four medals in Funchal in the men’s solo and mixed duet events.
Great Britain will be a clear favourite for the titles in the men’s solo events, the mixed duet and the technical duet. In the latter, Olympic silver medalists Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe will return to the pool where they made history for their nation at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with the pair once again expected to be at the heart of the British challenge.
Teammate Ranjuo Tomblin will enter Paris as one of the strongest men’s artistic swimmers in the field and will be a gold-medal contender in every event in which he competes.
The reigning European Champion in the men’s technical solo, and four-time medalist in Funchal, has enjoyed an outstanding season on the World Cup circuit, collecting 17 medals and completing a full sweep of his four events at the Super Final. His partnership with Thorpe in the mixed duet has also been one of the most impressive combinations on the circuit this season.
Another of the most anticipated storylines will be the return of the Alexandri sisters, who will make their first appearance of the season and their first under the Greek flag since 2012. The triplets had previously represented Austria for more than a decade before returning to compete for their home country.
Anna-Maria and Eirini Marina Alexandri will be among the favourites in the technical duet as the reigning World and European Champions. They will also be ones to watch in the free duet, an event they haven’t competed in since the Paris Olympic Games, where they had finished fourth.
Their sister, Vasiliki Alexandri, the reigning European Champion in the technical solo, will aim to defend her tech title while also naturally challenging for a podium finish in the free solo event. She should unveil two new routines in Paris.
Although entered in only four events, the home team will also be looking to make the most of its opportunity in Paris. Olympians Laelys Alavez and Romane Lunel will be among the French athletes to watch.
Their strong performances on the World Cup circuit this season, including gold in the technical duet at the Pontevedra leg, have demonstrated their medal potential at these championships and will surely use the crowd’s energy to give their all.
Among the individuals to watch, Klara Bleyer of Germany will arrive in Paris as the defending European Champion in the free solo. She has enjoyed another successful season, winning nine medals across four World Cups, including gold in the free solo and silver in the technical solo at the Super Final.
One of her biggest rivals, and another strong contender for the podium, is Neutral Athlete A Vasilina Khandoshka, who will return to the European Championships for the first time since the 2021 edition, where she clinched bronze in solo technical.
Since, the 24-year-old claimed three World Championships medals including a silver and a bronze in 2025, and has enjoyed a fantastic 2026 World Cup run, collecting six solo medals across three stops.
Bleyer and Khandoshka have gone back and forth throughout the season, regularly challenging each other for gold, and their rivalry will be one of the key storylines in the solo events in Paris.
Ukraine, which won two team silver medals in Funchal last year, will return to the free team event for the first time since the 2024 World Championships in Doha. The young Ukrainian team has already shown plenty of promise, notably winning gold in acrobatic team at the Paris World Cup in March, and their return to all five Olympic events is a welcome sight and another exciting storyline.
The depth of the competition will extend beyond the established medal contenders. Portugal, Bulgaria and Türkiye have all been working within the European Aquatics Artistic Swimming Support Programme, launched to boost team entries ahead of Paris 2026. Bulgaria is most notably entered in 10 out of 11 possible events, including the team technical and team acrobatic.
The competition starts on July 31, with the free duet preliminary round. Follow all the action here.
ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET
Cover photo: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia
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