Bulgaria’s artistic swimming team has fine-tuned for its debut at the European Aquatics Championships Paris 2026 with a training camp from July 19 to 26.
“We held a training camp for the Bulgarian National Artistic Swimming Team from July 19 to 26 at the Sportpalas Sports Complex,” a team spokesperson told European Aquatics.
“The training sessions were focused on the team’s preparation for the upcoming European Championships in Paris, with particular emphasis on the team events.
“We worked on refining the choreography and improving the technical elements of the routines.
“In conclusion, I can say that all the athletes trained diligently and are looking forward to the upcoming European Championships.”
Bulgaria – who will compete in the team technical and team acrobatic events – are working along with Turkiye and Portugal within the European Aquatics Artistic Swimming Support Program launched earlier this year to boost team entries at Paris 2026.
Bulgarian preparations can be viewed below:
As part of their development the Turkish team took part for the first time at the EA Junior Championships in Munich in the team technical event for which they are also entered at Paris 2026.
They finished last of the 15 competing teams, but were only five points off the 14th team, Czechia, with their total of 193.8067.
Reflecting on the experience in Germany, Tugce Erdem, from the Turkiye Federation coaching staff, told European Aquatics:
“Participating in this competition was a valuable experience for us.
“It was important to see the difference between their training performances and their competition performance as a team, receive feedback from the judges, and continue our preparations for Paris accordingly…”
As a result, she added, the athletes had “already become a stronger, more united and more connected team.”
Check on their progress below:
While Bulgaria and Turkiye’s teams are entirely female, Portugal have two male artistic swimmers in their line-up for the team acrobatic event – 16-year-old Rodrigo Carvalho and 22-year-old Daniel Ascenso.
“The team is working really well together and we’re going all out for the Europeans,” Carvalho told European Aquatics.
Ascenso, who will also be participating at Paris 2026 in the free and technical mixed duet events, added: “I’m focusing on my learning process and trying the best I can to correspond to the team and the coach (Maura Xavier) overall.”
EA is providing each participating country with 10,000 euros to prepare teams for the artistic swimming that will take place at the Olympic Aquatic Centre Greater Paris Metropolis from July 31 to August 5.
This EA initiative has been prompted by the fact that, while many federations had athletes involved in solo or duet competition, the number of countries taking part in the team free, team technical and team acrobatic events was relatively limited.
The intention is to encourage the establishment of teams involving athletes who will be able to maintain their involvement, thus creating a new competitive legacy and encouraging new generations of talent to follow them.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
