Happy New Year! May this new year bring lots of joy, fulfilment, health, no basemarks, and plenty of awesome competitions. Before we fully turn the page on 2025, here’s a look back at December’s highlights: team rosters are taking shape, international collaborations are in full swing, and awards season delivered. Everything you need to start 2026 in the loop is right here.

Team Rosters

• USA Artistic Swimming announced its 2026 duet squad: Ghizal Akbar, Anita Alvarez, Jaime Czarkowski and Kanako Field. Akbar and Czarkowski competed together last season, albeit only once at the World Championship. Alvarez returns to the lineup after focusing on the team events over the last two years. Finally, 15-year-old Field, a three-time World Youth medalist in 2023 and younger sister of Olympian Megumi Field, will be gaining experience in this event.
• Canada Artistic Swimming posted its 2026 senior national team roster: Lily Bernier, Charlie Breault, Andrea Escobar, Mya Fortin, Georgia Hock, Laurianne Imbeau, Audrey Lamothe, Emma McIlwain, Ximena Ortiz Montano, Halle Pratt, Kenzie Priddell, Alicia Réhel, Florence Tremblay and Olena Verbinska. The two newcomers are Lily Bernier and Andrea Escobar, who will — finally — make it onto the senior stage after standouts performances as juniors. The pair are longtime duet partners, and reigning national champions and Canada Games winners. At nationals, they also split the solo honours, trading gold and silver between the technical and free events, while Escobar claimed both solo golds at the Canada Games.

More International Collabs

• The Korean artistic swimming national team traveled to the U.S. for a training camp at the Santa Clara Aquamaids, notably to work with coach and technical controller Bill May.
• Mayuko Fujiki, former head coach of the Spanish national team, continues to share her wealth of knowledge and recently worked with Team Canada on their new free team choreography.
• The duet squad of Germany, made of Klara Bleyer, Amelie Blumenthal-Haz and Maria Denisov, had a training camp with Imura Masayo, former head coach of the Japanese national team. Imura had already worked with Bleyer in past seasons.

 

Awards Season

• Iris Tió Casas of Spain and Aleksandr Maltsev of… Neutral Athletes B… have been crowned the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming Athletes of the Year. Both won three golds at the World Championships, with Tió leaving Singapore with six medals in total.
• More recognition came for the Spaniard and other members of the squad from the Spanish Olympic Committee. It awarded the Heart of Spain Award to Tió for representing the values ​​of sport and their commitment inside and outside of competition. The Breakthrough Award went to Dennis Gonzalez Boneu for his emergence and progress throughout the season. Finally, the Coaches Award was granted to Andrea Fuentes in recognition of her technical work and leadership.
• Over the last few months, Iris Tió was also recognized by other institutions and prominent Spanish media, winning the Premis Dona i Esport Award, the AS Sports Award, the Diario Sport Women’s Values Award, the ‘Los Leones’ Award by El Espanol newspaper, the Desmarcadas Award 2025, the Trofeo Excelencia by The Change Congress, the Premio Mujerhoy Award alongside Dennis Gonzalez Boneu… And probably some more I forgot. Incredible.
• Across the world in South Korea, Hur Yoonseo was awarded the Korea Talent Award (Minister of Education Award) for 2025.

Stanford Hires

• 2008 Olympic gold medalist Olga Kuzhela was named assistant coach for the team at Stanford University. She joins head coach Elvira Khasyanova, former teammate and fellow 2008 Olympic champion, on staff. Prior to Stanford, Kuzhela founded and coached at Akula Artistic Swimming Club in California, served as head coach of Russia’s Nevskaya Volna from 2011–18, coached the Russian Youth National Team, and developed athletes at every national team level.

A Few Budapest News

• The 2026 World Junior Championships will be held in Budapest from August 12-16.
• We finally have official dates for the 2027 World Championships, also hosted in the Hungarian capital. These World Championships, which will set the stage for LA 2028, will be held from June 26 – July 17. The exact dates for the artistic swimming events aren’t known yet, but we do know the action will go down at the Duna Arena.

Training Camp Wholesomess

• A historic training camp at the CAR in Sant Cugat brought together the senior, junior, and youth’s national teams of Spain for the first time, creating a unique opportunity for shared learning and mentorship. Athletes and coaches worked side by side across choreography, technique, acrobatics, and athlete development — an experience that would have absolutely blown the mind of 13-year-old me. (Although, I probably wouldn’t have been able to focus with Gemma Mengual next to me)

• Please join me in congratulating Marikit Flores, our amazing intern, for getting into Stanford University!! You can read some of her work from the last few months here, and follow her on Instagram!

 

ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET

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