Europe’s female swimmers earned a welter of world long and short course medals in 2024 either side of the Paris Olympics, where Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström won two golds and others from the continent secured a silver and three bronzes.

Sjöström, 31, won gold in the 50m and 100m freestyle events, eight years after winning the 100m butterfly at the Rio 2016 Games.

The Swede had planned to swim only the 50m freestyle at the Games, but decided to enter the 100m freestyle as it fitted into her schedule.  

She began in the pool by helping Sweden finish fifth in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay before winning the 100m in 52.16 ahead of Torri Huske of the United States, who clocked 52.29.

Sjöström then secured the 50m freestyle title in 23.71 ahead of Australia’s Meg Harris, who recorded 23.97.

France’s Anastasiya Kirpichnikova backed up the efforts of Leon Marchand in the newly-built Olympic Aquatics Centre as she delivered silver in the 1500m freestyle.

The 24-year-old clocked a national record of 15:40.35 as she followed home defending champion Katie Ledecky of the United States, with bronze going to Germany’s 22-year-old Isabel Marie Gose, who set a national record of 15:41.16.

Tes Schouten of The Netherlands added another bronze to the European cause as she took third place in the 200m breaststroke, clocking 2:21.05.

Ireland’s 24-year-old Mona McSharry also reached the podium in Paris as she finished third in the 100m breaststroke, six years after she had taken two fourth places at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. After intimating immediately after the race that these would be her last Olympics, McSharry’s stance appeared to have changed once she had returned home to huge acclaim.

Sjöström and Schouten had begun their year by taking gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships that took place at Doha’s Aspire Dome in February, where European women earned 10 of the 17 individual titles and also won one of the three women’s relays.

Sjöström won the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly, while Italy’s Simona Quadarella also completed a double in the 800m and 1500m freestyle. Marit Steenbergen of The Netherlands also left Qatar with two golds after winning the 100m freestyle in a national record of 52.26 and then anchoring the Dutch team to the 4x100m freestyle title ahead of Australia and Canada in 3:36.61.

British swimmers also secured a double as Laura Stephens won the 200m butterfly and Freya Colbert took the 400m medley title.

Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte meanwhile secured her third consecutive 50m breaststroke title – and she would go on to retain her short course version in December.

Steenbergen’s compatriot, Schouten, earned the 200m breaststroke title and took silver in the 100m version, and Germany’s Angelina Kohler won the 100m butterfly,

Other silver medals were claimed by Germany’sIsabel Gose in the 800m, Melanie Henique of France in the 50m butterfly, Denmark’s Helena Rosendahl Bach in the 200m butterfly, Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko in the 400m medley, and by Britain and Sweden in the respective 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays.

Gose also claimed bronzes in the 1500m and 400m freestyle, setting a national record of 4:02.39 in the latter. Other third places went to Benedetta Pilato of Italy in the 50m breaststroke, Sweden’s Louise Hanssen in the 100m butterfly, Bosnia and Hercegovina’s 18-year-old Lana Pudar in the 200m butterfly, Italy’s Sara Franceschi in the 400m medley and Katarzyna Wasick of Poland in the  50m freestyle.

Neutral athlete Anastasiya Shkurdai reached the podium after finishing third in the 200m backstroke.

Gorbenko played  high profile role at the European Aquatics Championships that took place in  Belgrade less than couple of months before the Olympics. She won two individual golds, in the 200m and 400m medley, and helped Israel win the 4x200m freestyle relay in a national record of 1:56.74.

Barbara Seemanova of the Czech Republic also won an individual double as she won the 100m freestyle in a national record of 53.50 and the 200m freestyle in 1:55.37, as well as silver in the 400m freestyle, while compatriot Kristyna Horska won the 200m breaststroke.

Ajna Kesely of Hungary picked up golds in the 400m freestyle and 800m freestyle, and her compatriots Petra Senanszky and Vivien Jackl also topped the podium in the 50m freestyle and 1500m freestyle respectively. Hungary also won the 4x100m freestyle relay.

Poland secured two individual titles through Adela Piskorska in the 100m backstroke and Dominika Sztandera in the 50m breaststroke, and both combined in the victorious 4x100m medley team.

Ireland won 50m backstroke gold and 100m backstroke silver through Danielle Hill, Portugal’s Camila Rebelo won the 200m backstroke, while 17-year-old Eneli Jefimova make a breakthrough to take the 100m breaststroke title.

Other golds went to Sweden’s Sara Junevik in the 50m butterfly, Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk in the 100m butterfly and Helena Rosendahl Bach of Denmark in the 200m butterfly ahead of 18-year-old Pudar. Vanotterdijk also took 50m butterfly silver.

Having earned two bronzes and a silver at the World Championships, and bronze at the Olympics, Gose finished the year atop a global podium as she won the 1500m title at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) held in Belgrade earlier this month.

Gose also won 800m freestyle silver in a German record of 8:05.42.

Meilutyte retained her short course title in the 50m breaststroke in 28.54, and Italy also won gold in the 4x50m freestyle relay.

France’s Beryl Gastaldello had a superbly consistent competition as she won silver in the 100m freestyle in 50.63 and 50m butterfly in 24.43, and took bronze in the 100m medley in 56.67 – all three of which were national records.

Other silvers were earned by Italy’s Quadarella in the 1500m, Tessa Giele in the 100m butterfly in a Dutch record of 54.66, Hungary in the 4x200m freestyle and Britain in the 4x100m medley.

The British success meant Abbie Wood left Budapest with three medals as she won individual bronze in the 200m and 400m medleys, setting a national record of 2:02.75 in the former.

Jefimova followed up on her European success by finishing third in a fiercely contested 100m breaststroke, and Poland’s Wasick added another bronze to her medal collection in the 50m freestyle.

Neutral athletes won the mixed 4x50m medley and 4x100m medley titles. In individual competition Shkurdai took bronze in the 200m backstroke and Evgeniia Chikunova earned silver in the 200m breaststroke.

In the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup, Wasick won all three of her 50m freestyle races and finished eighth in the overall standings, one place below neutral athlete Alina Zmushka.