As excitement builds for the European Aquatics Championships Paris 2026, home aquatic athletes including three-times world champion Maxime Grousset spoke about their hopes at an Eiffel Tower press conference marking 15 days before competition starts.
And the French swimming federation (FFN) took the opportunity to highlight strong ticket sales and to unveil its Championships mascot, ELO, shaped like a drop of water.
Adrien Chandou, Director of the Championships, explained that the name was intended to suggest the French word for water – “l’eau” – and also the English world “hello.”
Grousset, who was accompanied by Olympic finalist and multiple international medallist Beryl Gastaldello, double world high diving champion Gary Hunt and double Paralympic champion David Smetanine, spoke of his high expectations for the forthcoming home event:
“Two years after the Olympics we have the chance to stage this competition in Paris,” he told European Aquatics.
“I think the French people will like it. Even before our successes at Paris 2024 I think they liked watching aquatics, and I think the European Championships will be a good competition.”
Grousset, who won men’s 4x100m medley bronze at the Paris 2024 Games, missed last month’s national championships after breaking a bone in his left foot during training. Asked to assess his current fitness, he responded:
“My foot is OK. It’s not 100 per cent repaired. My shoulder is OK. My arms too. But my legs – I don’t have a good preparation with my kick under the water, with my start.
“So it’s complicated to say I will be good in Paris but I will do the best I can.”
The FFN announced that the third wave of ticket sales had seen 51,000 sold for the Championships, which will run from July 31 to August 16 at the Olympic Aquatics Centre and will involve 1268 athletes and 615 volunteers.
Gastaldello commented: “Its amazing. We can’t wait to live again what happened in Paris. I think it’s going to be louder, we are going to have more French people, because with the Olympics we had the whole world coming to watch.
“So we are very excited for the electricity that is to come next month.
“We have been two or three times already at the Olympic Aquatics Centre, so we know how the pool is, how it feels, everything to do with the hotels, so we are accommodated to all the facilities.
“The pool is amazing, I love it. It’s good for backstroke, it’s spacious and there’s a lot of light. I mean, it’s new and it’s well done.
“For me these Championships will be about getting medals with the relays and individual medals as well, national records which will mean personal best times. So those are my goals for Paris 2026, to just aim for the best of my abilities.
“I have many friends and family wanting to come. That’s part of the perks of being at home.”
Smetanine, who announced his retirement in Paris two years ago after completing sixth Paralympics, spoke with enthusiasm about the new initiative that will occur at these Championships, which will include para-swimming within the main competition programme.
“I am still involved with para-swimming and with the French federation – still close to the waves!
“We decided to have two days with para-swimming. To be able to be integrated in the European Aquatics Championship is something very important for us.
“It’s the first time in France that we are organising this. The venue is very accessible. I have been in charge of the quality of the organisation during the Paralympic Games so, yes, it’s a good quality.
“And as we have a nice European Aquatics Championships it is right that we should have organised different events for the para-swimming as well.
“We are very excited to have the European Swimming Championships in France. We’ve been looking at the numbers of tickets already sold and it looks to be successful, so we are happy for that.”
Hunt, who was born and raised in Britain, commented: “It’s a dream come true to have European Championships in Paris. I’ve been in France for almost 20 years now and I think the divers didn’t even dream of having such a facility this good.
“After the Olympics there were so many good memories and now we get to experience even better ones.”
With high diving not being part of the Olympics, Hunt – who represented France in the 10m synchro at Paris 2024 – welcomed the opportunity to showcase his speciality in the French capital.
“It’s a great opportunity to represent my sport, my speciality in high diving. It’s going to be a lot of fun diving into the River Seine.
It’s particularly interesting because the dives will be from 20 metres, so it will be a surprise for many and interesting to see how everyone performs with a different set of dives than we’re used to at 27 metres. But that will make it exciting.”
Asked how important it will be to French swimming fans to have a top-level competition in their city just two years after the Olympics, Laurent Ciubini, director general of the French Swimming Federation (FFN) responded:
“I think it’s most important because during the Olympics there was a huge crowd to see the swimming. And if we want to keep this energy and this fan experience we have to keep presenting very interesting events for fans.
“And I think these Championships are very interesting. The whole European world of swimming will be in Paris. That is very important for the fans, for Parisians and for France.
“During the event we will teach 560 kids to swim. On the site. And also in the Olympic Aquatics Centre we will keep 800 spots for people to have swimming lessons all year long.
“That will be the first part of the heritage. And the second part will be that we are going to build a new pool in Clichy where we hope there will be a lot more people learning to swim. So the heritage of Paris 2026 is concrete.”
The press conference involved numerous other contributors including Maxime Sauvage, in charge of sport at the Mayor of Paris office, Quentin Gezell, vice president of the Metropole de Grand Paris, Lazreg Benelhadj, President Delegate of the FFN and Delphine Benoit, in charge of corporate social responsibility for the Championships.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
