Athletes from Portugal (above), Turkiye and Bulgaria are making swift progress within the European Aquatics Artistic Swimming Support Program launched to boost entries at Paris 2026.

EA is providing each country with 10,000 euros to prepare teams who will be in action at the Olympic Aquatic Centre Greater Paris Metropolisthis summer and all three have held their training camps which in preparation for the artistic swimming competition which runs in the French capital from July 31 to August 5.

This initiative was 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.

“When I first saw the announcement of the European Aquatics support programme I applied without hesitation,” said Lacin Kokcay, head coach of the Turkish artistic swimming team.

“I truly believed it was an inspiring and highly motivating initiative for teams that are eager to compete and continuously improve.

“As a member of the European Aquatics Technical Artistic Swimming Committee (TASC) I have been working closely with this community for the past two seasons. Throughout this time, our shared mission has always been to create greater value for athletes and to reach new teams and emerging talents.

“Since I took on the role of head coach of the Turkish national team in 2021 we have worked on a dynamic approach.

“Our solo, duet, and team programmes – and the competitions we have attended – have all evolved based on our athletes’ needs and development stages.

“This season, for the first time, we separated duet and team training systems and introduced new methodologies tailored specifically to the team’s current level and requirements.

“At one stage we had even decided not to participate in the European Aquatics Championships in Paris as our team is very young and still gaining experience.

“However, following our acceptance into this project, we reassessed our plans by carefully analysing the team’s needs.

“The support from European Aquatics made us feel that we are not alone in this journey, which has been incredibly encouraging for all of us.

“To address our current gaps – particularly in acrobatic elements – we have planned a dedicated training camp in June.

“At the same time we are receiving valuable feedback from judges and experts regarding our development process, which allows us to continuously refine and structure our training more effectively.

“We are truly excited and grateful for this collaboration. The professionalism, step-by-step structure and genuine support we are experiencing through this partnership are extremely motivating.

“This initiative is not only about the present moment – it is a source of inspiration that will extend to future generations. For us it stands as a powerful reminder that if you truly want to succeed there is always a way.

“My sincere thanks to European Aquatics and to everyone involved in making this project possible.”

Meanwhile Bulgarian athletes working towards competing in the acrobatic and team technical events are under the charge of the national federation’s head coach, Irina Dimitrova.

Dimitrova has had more than 30 years’ experience as a coach in artistic swimming. During that time she has have guided both junior and senior athletes to appearances in finals at European and world competitions.

They included Asia Anastasova and Bogdanq Zareva, who made the top 20 in the duet event at the 2004 Athens Games having become Bulgaria’s first artistic swimmers to qualify for the Olympics.

Dimitrova is being assisted by Yulia Chuburova, who added:

“I am an artistic swimming coach with over 20 years of experience. I began my coaching career in 2001, preparing a duet that represented Bulgaria at the European Junior Championships in Kharkhiv, Ukraine.

“I have worked as a national coach, with athletes from my club consistently winning the Bulgarian National Championships.

“Since 2023, I have been developing a mixed duet with Dimitar Isaev, a former diver. In just three years, he has progressed significantly.

“I believe Bulgaria has talented athletes and dedicated coaches with strong potential for international success.”

Looking ahead to the EA Championships, Dimitrova told European Aquatics: “We hope we can manage to qualify for the finals of all events in which we are going to participate.

“For future years I would love to see our team become more professional and masterful in terms of skills so we can have better rankings in near future.

“In terms of the challenges we have faced I can mention that all competitors train in their sports clubs on local level, so we find it especially challenging to work on team routines when we are separated.

“So far we have had just one training camp, and our next one is set for the end of this month.

“Until we were approved for the EA support programme we didn’t have any plans to compete at team events in Paris.

“The majority of our athletes are in the junior age group, and they have had a range of experience in solo, duet and team routines. We are working on team technical and acrobatic routines for Paris 2026.

“It was challenging to build team routines in both the tech and Acro programmes in that first training camp, but we managed to do it in the little time available to us and that was a big gain.

“We had really important task from our federation for this camp, where we were also working on points for duet and mixed duet free. All our athletes worked hard both on duet events and team events.

“We have one male athlete in our team.”

Portugal, who are being guided by the national federation’s head coach of artistic swimming, Maura Xavier, number two male athletes in their team which is targeting the acrobatics event in Paris.

Xavier was an artistic swimmer from 1980 to 1987.

She has been involved in coaching for almost 40 years in Brazil – where she was in charge of the Olympic team from 2012 until the Rio 2016 Games – and Peru, where she was technical director and head coach from 2019 to 2025.

She took up her current position this year.

“Our realistic goals are to compete in Acro at Paris 2026 with our best performance and to present Portugal as a solid team with a promising future in which it can compete with the best,” Xavier said.

“This support project will surely serve as leverage for the growth of artistic swimming in Portugal, taking into account that the national team is the flagship of the sport and serves as a driving force for its practice .

“One of the main challenges we face is that In Portugal there are still few clubs that practise artistic swimming so we can’t yet have a system where we can train every day with the national team together.

“Therefore, we have to meet for short periods. In this case, we will have a total of four meetings, each involving four training days in which there are two sessions. The ideal situation would be to be together every week until the competition.

“Our athletes are aged between 16 and 22 years old. Some have previously practised swimming, water polo, and artistic gymnastics.

“Unusually we have two male athletes in our team.

“Rodrigo Carvalho, who is 16, has been practising artistic swimming for six years and is part of the junior mixed duet for Portugal. He has already participated in team competitions.

“Daniel Ascenso, who is 22, has been practising artistic swimming for four years.

“He is part of the Portuguese national senior mixed duet team and will also be participating in the Paris 2026 competition in the free and technical mixed duet events. This will be his first time competing as part of a team.

“We are holding all four of our scheduled training camps at the DESMOR – Rio Maior Sports Centre.

“From my point of view the first training sessions in April were very positive. Training began at 7:30 am in the gym with speed exercises specific to artistic swimming and flexibility, followed by acrobatics and then land-based work to solidify the choreography.

“From 9:15 am to 12:15 pm training began in the water with physical conditioning, acrobatics training, and choreography construction.

“From 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm training resumed in the water with the continuation of choreography construction.

“From 5:15 pm to 6:30 pm strength training was done in the gym and training videos were studied.

“At the end of our first three days the entire choreography had been created.

The athletes responded in a very enthusiastic and focused manner to learn and execute everything in the best way.”

The Portuguese project is also being overseen by the national federation’s artistic swimming technical director Susana Matoso.

Also a former artistic swimmer, from 2005 to 2019, Susana has worked as a lecturer and Professor in training and development courses for artistic swimming coaches in Portugal.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics