The stage is set for a landmark European Aquatics Championships, as Paris prepares to welcome the continent’s best aquatic athletes for the 2026 edition, one that will mark the centenary of the competition.
It will be the first time the European Championships have been held in France since Strasbourg hosted the event in 1987, while Paris itself will welcome the Championships for the first time since 1931.
Among the five aquatic disciplines, artistic swimming will get the action underway on 31 July at the Olympic Aquatics Centre, the same venue that hosted the sport during the Paris 2024 Games. Across the six days that follow, the continent’s best artistic swimmers from 22 Member Federations will compete for 11 European titles.
All gold medal winners from the 2025 European Artistic Swimming Championships in Funchal return to defend their titles, but the competition promises to be particularly open.
The reigning champions will face a host of new and established challengers, with the World Cup season having already provided plenty of indications that the battle for the medals will be fierce.
Spain arrives as the team to beat. In Funchal, the Spaniards claimed the Championships Trophy after winning medals in all 11 events, including five golds.
The Spanish team, which won Olympic bronze in this same pool, has competed only once so far this season at the Pontevedra World Cup, but its international record remains formidable.
At the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, Spain was the top European nation, winning nine medals, including three golds. 23-year-old Iris Tio Casas contributed to all three victories there, and will be one of the headline names in Paris alongside Dennis Gonzalez Boneu, her partner in the mixed duet free where they are the reigning European and World Champions.
Both Spaniards were named European Aquatics Artistic Swimmers of 2025, while Tio Casas also received the same honour from World Aquatics after her performance in Singapore. Reigning European Champion Jordi Caceres will also be in Paris to defend his men’s solo free title.
Spain will be expected to contend for European titles and medals across all 11 events as it looks to build on its extraordinary consistency, memorable and exciting routines, and inspiring run of success since head coach Andrea Fuentes took over in the fall of 2024.
One of the biggest challenges to Spain is expected to come from the Neutral Athletes B, who will return to the European senior stage for the first time since 2021 and who are expected across all 11 events as well.
The Neutral Athletes B already have a strong record on the international stage, having won two bronze medals in the duet events, as well as silver medals in the team technical and acrobatic events in Singapore.
Since then, however, the team has undergone significant changes. Seven-time Olympic Champion Svetlana Romashina has taken over as head coach, with a new staff, a fairly revised roster, refreshed routines and a new, modern vision already producing impressive results.
Their gold-winning performances at the World Cups in Paris and Xi’an have shown that they will arrive in the French capital with serious medal and title ambitions.
The delegation will also feature one of the most promising young mixed duets in the field, with three-time European Junior Champions Zakhar Trofimov and Alina Rumiantseva looking to make their mark on the senior stage. Trofimov, reigning two-time European Junior Champion, will also be a serious contender in the men’s solo events.
Italy will also be among the leading nations in Paris across all 11 events. The Italians are the reigning European Champions in the duet free and team acrobatic events, and had claimed eight medals overall in 2025.
Olympians Enrica Piccoli and Lucrezia Ruggiero will be among the names to watch for the country, as the reigning European Champions and World Championship silver medalists in duet free have enjoyed another strong season so far.
Teammate and 19-year-old Filippo Pelati will also be one to keep an eye on after winning bronze at the World Championships, and claiming four medals in Funchal in the men’s solo and mixed duet events.
Great Britain will be a clear favorite for the titles in the men’s solo events, the mixed duets and the duet technical. In the latter, Olympic silver medalists Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe will return to the pool where they made history for their nation at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with the pair once again expected to be at the heart of the British challenge.
Teammate Ranjuo Tomblin will enter Paris as one of the strongest men’s artistic swimmers in the field and as a gold-medal contender in every event in which he competes.
The reigning European Champion in the men’s solo technical, and four-time medalist in Funchal, has enjoyed an outstanding season on the World Cup circuit, collecting 17 medals and completing a full sweep of his four events at the Super Final. His partnership with Thorpe in the mixed duet has also been one of the most impressive combinations on the circuit this season.
Another of the most anticipated storylines will be the return of the Alexandri sisters, set to make their first appearance of the season and their first under the Greek flag since 2012. The triplets had previously represented Austria for more than a decade before returning to compete for their home country.
Anna-Maria and Eirini Marina Alexandri will be among the favourites in the duet technical as the reigning World and European Champions, and will also be ones to watch in the duet free after finishing fourth at the 2024 Olympic Games, an event they haven’t competed in since.
Sister Vasiliki Alexandri, reigning European Champion in the women’s solo technical, will aim to defend her title there and for a podium finish in the solo free event as well.
Greece did not win a medal in Funchal, but the arrival of the Alexandri sisters could however dramatically boost the nation’s medal ambitions in Paris.
Although only entered in four events, the home team will also be looking to make the most of its opportunity in Paris. Olympians Laelys Alavez and Romane Lunel will be among the French athletes to watch.
Their strong performances on the World Cup circuit this season, including gold in the duet technical at the Pontevedra leg, have demonstrated their potential at these championships in both duet events.
Among the individual stars to watch, Klara Bleyer of Germany will arrive in Paris as the defending European Champion in the solo free. She has enjoyed another successful season, winning nine medals across four World Cups, including gold in solo free and silver in solo technical at the Super Final.
One of her biggest rivals, and another strong contender for the podium, will be Neutral Athlete A Vasilina Khandoshka, who will return to the European Championships for the first time since the 2021 edition, where she had then clinched bronze in solo technical.
More recently, the 24-year-old claimed two World Championships medals in 2025, a silver and a bronze, and has enjoyed a fantastic 2026 World Cup run, collecting six solo medals across three stops.
Bleyer and Khandoshka have gone back and forth throughout the season, regularly challenging each other for gold, so their rivalry will be one of the key storylines in the solo events in Paris.
The depth of the competition will extend beyond the established medal contenders. Bulgaria, Portugal, and Türkiye have all been working within the European Aquatics Artistic Swimming Support Programme, launched to boost team entries ahead of Paris 2026.
Bulgaria is most notably entered in 10 out of 11 possible events, including team technical and team acrobatic.
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Christina Marmet for European Aquatics
