In what is anticipated to be one of the closest fields in recent memory, 44 of the continent’s best male open water swimmers are preparing to take to the River Seine from 4-8 August to decide the European champions for 2026.
Florian Wellbrock arrives on the Seine as the man to beat. Germany’s world champion swept every men’s open water title on offer at last July’s World Championships in Singapore – the 10km, 5km, 3km knockout sprint and mixed relay – getting the better of a stacked field to reclaim the 10km crown he first won back in 2019. He goes again this time around in all four of those events.
Also returning is Italian distance swimming legend Gregorio Paltrinieri. Long the dominant force on the European open water circuit, he is entered across the 3km knockout, 5km and 10km, and brings Italian teammates Marcello Guidi, Andrea Filadelli and Domenico Acerenza with him as they chase accolades of their own.
Hungary, however, head into the Championships as the form nation. Kristof Rasovszky claimed both the 10km and the new three-stage knockout sprint at last year’s Europeans in Stari Grad, adding to a medal collection that already includes Olympic and world 10km gold.
He will go with training partner David Betlehem, who took knockout bronze in Croatia and has been a fixture on the podium across distances throughout 2025, plus a third Hungarian in Hunor Kovacs Seres, who joins them in the 5km, 10km and knockout sprint.
France also arrive with momentum. Logan Fontaine and Marc-Antoine Olivier finished second and third behind Rasovszky in last year’s 10km final, and will likely be hungry to make it one better. Fontaine’s progress through 2025 marks him out as one of the swimmers most likely to trouble the established order in the French capital.
The 5km looks set to be just as tightly fought. Paltrinieri defends the European title he won in Croatia, where he put in a spirited performance to get the better of Betlehem and Rasovszky, and the same trio – alongside Wellbrock and Olivier – should be scrapping for the medals again over the middle distance.
Racing from 1.5k to 500m over three segments, the knockout sprint produced one of the closest finishes of last year’s Championships, Rasovszky edging out Fontaine and Betlehem. Germany’s Oliver Klemet, Olympic bronze medallist over 10km at Paris 2024, enters all three individual distances and will be looking to turn that pedigree into a European medal.
The mixed relay rounds out the programme, and Hungary go in as champions after Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas, Bettina Fabian, Betlehem and Rasovszky edged Italy and France by just two seconds in Stari Grad. Betlehem and Rasovszky return to anchor the Hungarian effort, with Italy’s Paltrinieri and Guidi, and France’s Fontaine and Olivier, again expected in the mix.
Also worth watching is Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe. A world 10km medallist, he makes his return to the European stage, while Neutral Athlete B swimmers Vladimir Ivanov and Aleksandr Stepanov are entered across several distances. Poland’s European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Cup leg winner Bartosz Kapala also goes in all three individual events.
Open water swimming at the European Aquatics Championships Paris 2026 will take place in the River Seine from August 4 to 8, with the men’s 10km on day one, the 5km on day two, the 3km knockout sprint on day four and the mixed 4x1500m relay closing the programme on day five, with day three held as a contingency.
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Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics
