The city of Lublin will stage this year’s European Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships. Confirmation of the hosts for this event follows the announcement last July that it would be held in Poland for the second time after the 2011 edition that took place in Szczecin. Lublin, with a population of around 350,000, is the ninth largest city in Poland and the largest in eastern Poland.
Competition will take place from December 2 to 7, with the same venue then hosting the Masters Short Course Championships from December 10 to 16. This will be the second edition of the Masters SC event and more details about how to register for this competition will be available soon.
European Aquatics President Antonio Silva and Polish Swimming Federation President Otylia Jędrzejczak jointly promoted the 2025 European Short Course Championships when they appeared at a press event during the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest last December.
Standing alongside Jędrzejczak – who won world titles either side of Athens 2004 gold in the 200m butterfly – Silva reflected on the last time Poland hosted this event, at Szczecin in 2011.
“It was a long time ago when Poland last hosted a top EA event” Silva told the media gathering in the Duna Arena. “Fourteen years are a lot, so it was time to return to this beautiful country and I’m grateful for Otylia and the federation to stage this great event.
“Let’s hope we’ll have more records there as well as European swimmers are doing really well this year and I’m sure they will do in 2025 too.
”Looking ahead to the “really thrilling” event, Jedzrejczak said: “We have a very talented team whose members were very young when we had the last big swimming event back in 2011, the short-course Europeans in Szczecin and now they can show their quality in a home meet”.
She added that the European Short Course Championships will be a flagship event to advertise Poland across the continent, working in co-operation with Poland Travel.
The last European Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships were held in 2023 at Otopeni in Romania, with Great Britain topping the medals table after collecting nine golds, ahead of Italy and France, both of whom boasted seven golds.
Home swimmer David Popovici earned bronze in the 100m freestyle a year ahead of his winning performance in the 200m freestyle at the Paris 2024 Games.
Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi won gold in the 50m breaststroke and silver in the 100m breaststroke – the event where he would earn Olympic gold a year later. Another future Paris 2024 champion making a splash was Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen, who won the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle titles – setting a world record in the second of those events – a year before winning 800m freestyle gold at the Olympics.
Also earning a hat-trick of titles was Switzerland’s 23-year-old Noe Ponti, who won the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly races, breaking the European record in the 100m race. Ponti produced a stellar performance at last December’s World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest, where he set three world records en route to earning three golds.
