The wait for Spain’s first artistic swimming gold medal of the Championships came to an end on the fifth day of competition at the European Aquatics Championships Paris 2026, as Iris Tio Casas edged out a thrilling women’s solo technical final before the Neutral Athletes B claimed their second European title of the competition in the team technical.
After already collecting three medals throughout the week, Spain’s Iris Tio Casas finally climbed to the top of the European podium, claiming the women’s solo technical title with 263.6250 and delivering her nation’s first artistic swimming gold medal of Paris 2026.
Swimming her new routine to Rosalia’s song “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti”, the reigning European silver medallist once again combined exceptional technical precision with outstanding artistic expression.
Built around emotional transitions and a deeply expressive interpretation of the music, her performance earned the highest Artistic Impression scores of the competition and proved just enough to edge out her closest rival.
The battle for gold indeed went right down to the wire, with only 0.2433 points separating the top two athletes.
Fresh off winning the women’s solo free title the previous day, Neutral Athlete Vasilina Khandoshka had to settle for silver with 263.3817. The reigning World Championships silver medallist entered the final with the highest declared Degree of Difficulty at 38.60 and delivered her theatrical routine set to the theme “The Manson Dream”.
A regular on the international stage since 2016, Khandoshka produced a very strong swim, but was narrowly denied a second consecutive continental crown by the Spaniard’s superb artistry.
“I am very happy. It’s my first European Championships from 2021 and I am happy to be here and for the medals. I am so happy,” she said.
“I am now looking to my future competitions such as the World Championships and maybe the Olympic Games.
I would like to continue to surprise everyone with my new ideas and my technique and performances.”
Klara Bleyer of Germany completed the podium with 255.8400, successfully defending the bronze medal she won at last year’s European Championships.
Swimming first in the final, Bleyer opened with her routine set to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major. While she was not quite as sharp as usual on some of her Technical Required Elements, her overall performance was strong enough to keep her among the medal winners once again.
Despite what she said was ‘not her best swim’, she was still content with the result.
“I feel very relieved that I got on the podium. Today was not my best swim but I’m happy that I was able to be here and to win a medal. It’s an amazing feeling.
“It really shows that I had a continuous performance this year and this is what I’m really looking for also in the next season.
Vasiliki Alexandri, the two-time defending European champion, finished fifth, unable to match the execution and difficulty of the leading contenders on this occasion.
The Neutral Athletes B completed a successful team campaign by adding the team technical title to the team free gold they won 24 hours earlier. Posting the highest score of the evening with 303.2467, they had also entered the final with the highest DD at 52.20 and delivered a remarkably clean and technically accomplished performance.
Swimming their “Backstage Romance” routine, the reigning World Championships silver medallists impressed from the very beginning, earning two perfect 10.0s for their opening acrobatic move before maintaining their high standard throughout the routine to comfortably secure their second European title of the Championships.
“We are incredibly proud of this achievement. To win two golds is amazing,” they said to European Aquatics following the medal ceremony.
“We have amazing coaches who help our technique to be great, and it was. We live at the pool and it means so much to us to be able to take another gold medal.
“We will go again in the acrobatic tomorrow to try and make it three gold medals. Anything can happen so we are a bit nervous but we will try our best.”
Three-time defending European champions Spain claimed silver with 296.4299 after presenting their routine to “Hope” by NF. Opting for a very different strategy, the Spaniards declared a considerably lower difficulty at 41.95 – the third lowest DD in the field and more than 10 points below the Neutral Athletes B – instead relying on great execution and their trademark outstanding artistic impression.
The team delivered a very powerful and polished performance, highlighted by three perfect 10.0s on the opening acrobatic movement and an additional 10.0 for Performance, although it was ultimately not enough to retain their continental crown.
“It’s been a really good day. I’m very happy with the results and also I think as a team we are growing up a lot,” said Tio Casas when speaking on both her own performance and the team’s.
“Also we can do things much better, tomorrow in the acro final we will do it much better as a team. We have to keep improving – but we are proud.”
Italy rounded out the podium with 284.6725 on their “Queen of the Night” routine. After finishing fourth in this event at last year’s European Championships, the Italians delivered a composed performance to return to the podium and secure their second team bronze medal in Paris.
“We are very proud. This is our second bronze medal,” Marta Iacoacci said on behalf of her team.
“Yesterday was the first and we maintained our performance today. We have reserved energy for our last competition, and we will try our best. We hope for one more medal.”
Further down the standings, Bulgaria and Türkiye also featured in the final, finishing ninth and tenth respectively. Both nations were among the beneficiaries of the European Aquatics Artistic Swimming Support Programme, which provided funding to three Member Federations to help field team events at these Championships, marking another important step in the continued development of artistic swimming across Europe.
The competition continues tomorrow, with the team acrobatic final set to wrap up the artistic swimming event in Paris at 15:00.
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Christina Marmet for European Aquatics
