The Paris World Cup came to a thrilling close with four final events, each bringing high-stakes performances and standout moments. Kazakhstan’s Viktor Druzin opened the day with a commanding win in the men’s free solo, while Greece’s young pair brought their country gold in the free mixed duet.
Germany’s Klara Bleyer dominated the women’s freesolo with her space-themed routine, and the U.S. brought the competition to an electrifying finish with a golden performance in the acrobatic team event.
Three young athletes, aged between 14 and 18, opened up this last day in Paris for the men’s free solo routine. Kazakhstan’s Viktor Druzin, the oldest and most experienced of the field, claimed the gold with a total score of 127.2000.
Silver and bronze went to Greece, as 15-year-old Marios Kritsas and 14-year-old Stylianos Koukouselis Fouskis made their World Cup debuts. While the latter already has some international experience under his belt at the youth level, this meet has been Kritsas’ first appearance on the elite stage.
“I was a little bit nervous before I competed,” Kritsas said. “But when I walked on the stage, everything disappeared. I think my performance was good, and I’m very happy that I did not get any basemarks, I am very proud of that.”
Swimming to the theme of “Pirate”, Kritsas scored 126.6701 for second place and only 0.5299 points behind Druzin. Koukouselis Fouskis ranked third with a score of 123.9413 for his “Eagle” routine.
Although they are still eligible for youth and junior competitions this year, the two were named to the senior squad as well. New head coach Meng Chen has only been working with them for about three weeks, but was already very pleased about what she could see so far from them.
“They are very strong, they work hard, listen very well and are very respectful,” she said. “They call me ‘Miss Meng’ which makes me feel old (laughs). They fit in really well with the rest of the team and are like little brothers to the girls. I told them, for me they are the champions of the pool. I know how nervous they were before they competed but they managed so well, so that’s the spirit we’re looking for.
Now, our goal is to continue competing in World Cups. Right now, we want to promote more males in the sport, and I’m 100% in on this. I know they are young and they have a lot of things to improve on, but it’s important We also get to celebrate all these small wins and we will continue to work hard.”
Koukouselis Fouskis went on to compete in the free mixed duet event in the afternoon and clinched gold with Maria Ioanna Amerali with a total of 206.2708, ahead of the more experienced pair of Kazakhstan. Artur Maidanov and Valeriya Stolbunova claimed silver with a total of 194.7620, unfortunately with two basemarks. Only two nations were entered in that event.
In the women’s free solo event, Klara Bleyer of Germany comfortably won the gold with a score of 211.9176. Unveiling her new choreography set to the theme of “Space”, the reigning vice-European Champion displayed a great balance of high difficulty and strong artistic impression, where she notably received the highest score of the entire event as well.
“I was really surprised about the score because I thought I had done something wrong in terms of direction at some point,” she said. “But apparently, it was okay so that’s good, I’m really happy. I worked on this routine with Ona Carbonell. We wanted a theme and we chose Space because we thought it would be really good with these rules to show artistic and difficulty. Now it’s really important to have a good balance between the two; last year was more about difficulty, but now you don’t have to be too one or the other, it’s a good balance. We will still do some changes now so I can be at my best for the World Championships.”
Neutral Athlete Vasilina Khandoshka, reigning World bronze medalist in this event, settled for silver with a score of 200.0726. Khandoshka had come in with the highest Degree of Difficulty of the event, with 55.0, and received full credit for it on her Egyptian-inspired routine, but it wasn’t enough to catch up to Bleyer both in terms of execution and artistry.
The bronze medal went to Kyra Hoevertsz of Aruba by only 0.4499 points ahead of Georgia’s Maria Alavidze. Hoevertsz, who at 26 was the oldest of this solo field, swam to the song “Me and the Devil” by Soap&Skin and scored 184.7163.
“It was good, it’s the first competition of the season and with the big changes again in the scoring system, it was very interesting,” she said. “I really only had two simple goals today. I wanted to execute my hybrids solidly, and improve my artistic impression because I tend to be a bit weaker on the artistic side. When I got out, I felt like, that was it, it’s the best I could have done today, and no basemarks so that was a relief. I was happy with the swim today.”
This season, Hoevertsz has been closely collaborating with Esther Jauma, who coaches in the Netherlands and brought the Dutch duet to Olympic bronze six months ago. One of their main goals together has been to improve on artistic impression.
“The whole training is different with Esther,” she added. “It’s a lot more speed-based. I’m still trying to breathe in the routine, so everything is speed-focused, trying to do the same hybrids but 10 seconds less. And then this year, half of my practices are only going to artistic impression. I’ve never done that in the past, [Esther] asks me to move differently than what I’ve been doing, so these are the two most different things for sure.
Georgia’s Maria Alavidze had to settle for fourth place in Paris with a total score of 184.2664. Alavidze unveiled a brand new routine to the theme of “Memories” and was visibly thrilled after managing a clean, basemark-free swim.
The competition concluded with the acrobatic team event, with four nations showcasing five different routines. Unfortunately, everyone received at least one basemark in this final and all will surely look forward to clean performances next time out.
In the end, the U.S. claimed gold for its Olympic “Sorceresses” choreography, with a score of 183.4100. The Americans unveiled some high-risk, high-reward acrobatics here, and did receive a basemark on one of them, but their high execution and artistic impression scores helped them keep the top spot.
“Oh my goodness, this performance of art means the world to us,” Jacklyn Luu said. “We worked so hard creating and innovating new, very difficult lifts that we debuted here today. It was so rewarding to be able to show them off to the whole world. And to come out with a gold is amazing. We really tried to push the boundaries with our difficulty and it showed. The risk was worth the reward, we were able to pull it off.”
France also kept its Olympic choreography, and all athletes but two from its Olympic roster for this acrobatic event. Swimming an energetic French Cancan, the home team clinched the silver medal with 174.6150, also receiving one basemark.
Although this routine featured six Olympians, the squad still had to deal with the retirement of twins Charlotte and Laura Tremble, both of whom previously had key roles in this event and in the constructions of the acrobatics.
“It’s a new team that we have to build,” Ambre Esnault said. “It was our first experience together, which means learning to train together and to live through a competition all together. We’ve had to change a lot of things around, learn new roles and positions, and we made it work today. It was a great first outing for us with a lot of positives to take home, as well as things to focus on. We’re all very proud of what we showed in Paris. It was great to feel this home crowd again, it really gives us a boost of energy and it’s always super encouraging.”
The team of Israel, entirely made of junior athletes, swam to ABBA’s “Mamma Mia” won the bronze medal with a score of 164.1551.
The next leg of the 2025 World Cup circuit is scheduled from April 11 to 13 in Soma Bay, Egypt.
ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET
Photo: FFN / Anh Viet Chau
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