No jokes, but just a quick check-in on this April Fool’s day. The season is now fully underway, but even with a quieter month, there’s still been movement: a retirement, more globe-trotting coaches, training camps, and a few competition updates you might have missed.

Retirements

• Tatiana Gayday has announced her retirement. The 25-year-old Russian athlete last competed at the 2025 World Championships under the “Neutral Athletes B” designation, where she won bronze in technical duet and free duet. Gayday has already started contributing as a coach, and currently works with Kazakhstan. She notably was the listed choreographer for the nation’s new acrobatic team routine at the Paris World Cup.

She’s here, she’s there…

• You know the tune. Artistic Swimming Australia (ASA) has announced that Mayuko Fujiki will serve as National Programs Consultant: “Her global expertise in routine construction, technical development, and performance strategy will provide invaluable insight to Australia’s High Performance system.”
• ASA has also named Miriam Llovet as assistant coach. In recent year, Llovet has swam for and coached at the club of C.N. Granollers in Barcelona. Both will work alongside new head coach Andrea Fuertes.

 

Overseas Camp

• Nicolas Campos and Theodora Garrido, who make up Chile‘s mixed duet, traveled to the Santa Clara Artistic Swimming facilities in the U.S. for a 10-day training camp with coach and choreographer Anna Voloshyna. The two just competed at the Paris World Cup as well.

More Mixed Duets

• Join the party! The mixed duet events (technical and free) at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris will be open to non-European federations.  The artistic swimming competition will run from July 31 to August 5, 2026. Non-European participants will be able to win medals, but this will be independent of the awarding of medals to European entrants and their ranking.

Watch this

• Au Coeur De La Synchro (At the Heart of Artistic Swimming) is a new documentary film that gives a beind-the-scenes look into the daily lives of a few French elite and up-and-coming athletes from Pays d’Aix Natation, France’s top club nationwide. The film notably features current World Youth Champions Macéo Vanhée Dedieu and Carla Pusta, who’s now part of the senior squad, as well as junior national team athletes Gabrielle Bassou, Julia Domin, Magdalena Domin, and Nina Gateau. Subtitles available in numerous languages, including English.

Para Artistic Swimming European Championships

In case you missed it (because I certainly did initially), European Aquatics is organizing a Para Artistic Swimming competition, to be held alongside the 2026 European Aquatics Masters Championships this summer in Slovakia.

“European Aquatics is proud to introduce a Full Inclusion Model at the European Aquatics Masters Championships 2026, marking an important milestone in the evolution of Masters aquatics and demonstrating a strong commitment to accessibility, equality, and diversity. 

Under this model, athletes with disabilities will be fully integrated into the main competition programme, competing in the same events […] and participating within the same competition structure and operational framework as all other athletes, ensuring equal conditions and reinforcing the inclusive spirit of the Championships.”

European Aquatics released today a bit more information and participation criteria for Para Swimming and Para Open Water Swimming, and more details on Para Artistic Swimming are expected to follow.

The information bulletin for the competition is also available here.

ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET

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