Italy’s Chiara Pellacani, who has already secured four gold medals at the European Aquatics Championships Paris 2026, received yet another accolade tonight as she was presented with her trophy for being voted EA women’s diver of the year for 2025.
Ukraine’s Oleksii Sereda also received a trophy as best men’s diver in the 2025 European Aquatics Athlete of the Year Awards after a season in which he earned his first individual world medal.
Pellacani claimed 41.56% of the vote after a season of historic achievement in individual and mixed competition.
At the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore she combined with Matteo Santoro in the 3m synchro to earn Italy’s first world diving gold since 2015.
It was the culmination of ambition for a pair who had been mixed 3m synchro silver medallists at the World Aquatics Championships in 2022 and 2024 and bronze medallists in 2023.
Pellacani, who had previously earned four world medals in synchro events, also made an individual breakthrough in Singapore as she won bronze medals in the 1m and 3m springboard.
Earlier in the summer Pellacani had achieved success at the European Aquatics Diving Championships in Antalya, where she won the 1m springboard title and she and Santoro took 3m synchro silver.
“It was an amazing year for me, full of emotions,” she told European Aquatics. “Singapore 2025 for me was probably the highlight of the year, it was my best World Championships so far and I’m very proud and happy for 2025.
“I was looking for that medal (individual 3m springboard) for a long time. I think the three medals all have different emotions. 1m (bronze) was my first-ever individual medal at the World Championships so it’s very special. Then the Mixed Synchro (gold) with Matteo who is like my little brother and then the 3m individual (bronze) was very important for me as it’s my competition, I love it and that makes it so special.
“I think it was very important for me to compete at Europeans to get ready for the World Championships in Singapore. There were a lot of good divers, good competition and it was a crucial step to getting to Singapore and competing at that level.
“For me it’s very special. I love the Europeans, I have so many friends. and I feel like the environment is so fun, so it’s always an honour for me to compete here.”
Sereda, now 20, secured a 33.23% share of the total vote after a season in which he took silver in a dramatic 10m platform contest in Singapore that was won with a final flourish by Australia’s Cassiel Rousseau.
Sereda thus added to the 10m mixed synchro and 10m synchro silvers he had earned at the respective 2022 and 2023 World Championships.
Two months earlier at the European Aquatics Diving Championships in Antalya Sereda had won three golds to help Ukraine top the medals table with a total of seven medals.
The victories came in the mixed team event, the 10m synchro – in partnership with 15-year-old Mark Hrytsenko – and, for a third time, the 10m platform event which he had previously won as a 14-year-old at the home Championships in Kyiv 2019 and at the 2022 Championships in Rome.
Sereda’s season had begun in promising fashion when he won two medals at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup – Super Final.
“I am really happy to get this award and I understand that it means a lot,” Sereda said. “It motivates me even more to keep working harder and then hopefully one day I’ll become the best diver in the world.
“This (award) will go in my home, in Mykolaiv, where I keep all of the medals and awards I win. They make me happy and sometimes I sit and look at them, but honestly I am someone who is happy for the day and then thinks about the next target and that is what I’m doing here now in Paris.”
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
