2026 European Swimming Championships
The European Championships kick off tomorrow, and there has been no shortage of twists and turns in the leadup. That gives us some interesting storylines to keep an eye on – the first of which has serious ramifications.
Leon Marchand In Unfamiliar Territory
The IM master, whose strength is on the breaststroke leg, will swim…freestyle and butterfly? An adductor injury has forced his withdrawal from the 200 IM and 400 IM, with the 200 breaststroke left off the initial entry list entirely.
He is no slouch in the two events he is entered in. Marchand is the reigning Olympic champion and #2 swimmer in history in the 200 fly, and holds the fastest time in the world this season at 1:52.57. In the 400 free, he set a new best of 3:44.70 in December and could be a real threat considering he is the fastest man in the SCY 500 free by two seconds.
Will he take on more relay swims? France doesn’t have a 100 freestyler outside of Maxime Grousset right now, and he will be needed on the fly leg for the medley relay. The 4×200 free relay is a given, although he could go for a leadoff swim rather than his typical anchor, and there are spots open on the men’s 4×100 free, men’s 4×100 medley, mixed 4×200 free, and mixed 4×100 free if he wanted to take them.
It will be an interesting week. This will be his first European Championships since 2021, and he will be performing in front of a home crowd in Paris. Hopefully his withdrawal from the IM events was precautionary rather than an indication of any lingering injury, but for the first time since his breakout in 2022 there is some uncertainty around Marchand.
Hubert Kos The Front-Runner For Swimmer Of The Meet?
Marchand’s teammate Kos is on the other end of the uncertainty scale. He is entered in six events next week, and will surely scratch at least one with a potential triple on the cards on day 6.
He has only ever won two individual European titles before, both of them in the 200 IM. He could win that event for the third time in a row in Paris, but more pressing is his desire to claim the title in the event which he has become synonymous with at the global level – the 200 back.
He didn’t swim the event two years ago, but made the final and finished 8th in Rome in 2022. Since then, he has won two world titles and 2024 Olympic gold, and comes in as the second-fastest man in the world this year. Greece’s Apostolos Siskos, who won European silver two years ago, is his main competitor after blasting a national record of 1:54.12 earlier this year, but Kos is still the favorite after a 1:53.19 last summer.
He could add titles in the 200 IM and 100 back as well, and has entries in the 50 back (24.50), 100 fly (50.55), and 200 fly (1:56.01). He could be a finalist in all six events, but, with potential relay swims for Hungary as well, that would be a monumental schedule. The 200 fly is probably on the chopping block considering the final clashes with the 200 IM semi-final and the 100 back semi-final, but we will have to wait and see.
Grousset vs Ponti vs Milak
Three of the best 100 fly swimmers in history will collide in Paris, although the leadup has not been ideal for at least one of them. Maxime Grousset, World Champion in 2023 and 2025, Noe Ponti, 2025 World silver medalist, and Kristof Milak, 2024 Olympic champion, are three of the five fastest men in history in the event but only one of them can top the podium next week.
Grousset has questions regarding his form at this meet, having only just returned from a foot injury which kept him out of the French Elite Championships in June. His season best is just 50.95, slowest of this trio, but he did win gold at the European Short Course Championships in December in a new French record of 48.10. His long course best of 49.62 makes him the #2 performer in history, but with the effect of his phenomenal kick tempered by that foot injury it is tough to predict how he will perform.
Ponti won silver in a new lifetime best of 49.83 in Singapore last summer, but his season best of 50.59 is his slowest since 2023. He won Olympic bronze in 2021 in a time of 50.74 but didn’t stand on a long course international podium again until last summer, but had made serious noise in short course in the interim.
Milak, however, is the swimmer with the most international success. He won world silver in 2017, Olympic silver in 2021, and Olympic gold in 2024, and is the only one of these three to have broken 50 seconds multiple times. His lifetime best is 49.68, making him the #3 performer in history, and he leads the season rankings with a 50.22.
Who will come out on top? Milak has ditched the 200 fly to focus on the sprint events, but Grousset looked imperious last summer and Ponti is on the hunt for his first long course title. It should be a thrilling battle.
A Titanic Battle Brewing In Men’s 100 Back
This could well be the race of the meet. Seven of the eight finalists and eight of the 16 semi-finalists at the world championships last summer were European, and the talent base looks to have only increased this year.
Hubert Kos may not swim, with a very short turnaround between the final of this event and the final of the 200 IM, but Thomas Ceccon, Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Apostolos Christou, Ollie Morgan, and Kliment Kolesnikov have all been 52.12 or faster. Ksawery Masiuk, Pavel Samusenko, Hugo Gonzalez, and Mewen Tomac are sub-53 seconds as well.
That is before we even get onto the younger talent. Miroslav Knedla, Kaii Winkler, Jon Shortt, Ivan Martinez Sota, Georgii Iakovlev, and Georgii Smirnov are all entered in 53-low. There will be no opportunity to rest through all three rounds, and if there is one event where we see a big name unexpectedly fall before the final, this looks to be it.
A First Ever Final Defeat For Ramsay-Peaty?
Adam Ramsay-Peaty has won 16 medals at the European Championships. He has won those having only competed in 17 events ever at the European Championships. All 16 of those medals are gold medals.
That is a mind-boggling statistic. Ramsay-Peaty has won the quadruple-quadruple: the 50 breast, 100 breast, men’s 4×100 medley relay, and mixed 4×100 medley relay, at four Championships in a row between 2014 and 2021. The only race which he has failed to medal in was the 200 breaststroke in 2014, when he missed the semi-finals.
This year he looks more vulnerable. Ramsay-Peaty won bronze in both the 50 breast and 100 breast at the Commonwealth Games, and his last individual title came in the 50 breast at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. His season best times of 26.64 in the 50 and 58.97 in the 100 rank him 4th and 3rd, respectively, so far this season, and he added time in Glasgow last month.
It seems almost certain that his unbeaten run in the 50 breast and 100 breast will come to an end in Paris. Great Britain are the longest of long shots to win either the men’s 4×100 medley or mixed 4×100 medley relays too.
At some point next week, a long course European final featuring Ramsay-Peaty will end with someone else winning gold. That has never happened before.
Egor Kornev Seeks The Sprint Crowns
With the retirement of Ben Proud last summer, Europe needed a new swimmer to step up and take over the mantle of the fastest man in the pool. Egor Kornev has done that with aplomb, already surpassing Proud’s lifetime best of 21.11 with a 21.06 at the Russian Championships.
Kornev also clocked a 46.96 in the 100 free that makes him just the eighth man to break 47 seconds. He leads the field by half a second this season in the 50, and was the fastest finisher at the World Championships last year who will be in attendance in Paris, but his path in the 100 free is blocked by the formidable form of David Popovici.
The Russian swimmer has already exceeded expectations for this season. With the 50 fly also holding gold-medal potential after he set a new Russian record of 22.59 in Kazan two months ago, Kornev could win some serious hardware next week.
Lukas Martens takes on 200 free
Lukas Martens has been one of the top 400 freestylers in the world over the last four years, and has made world and Olympic finals in the 800 free and 1500 free. However, this year he is scrapping the two longer events and dialling in on an event in which he is yet to truly make his mark.
He is the fastest European man in the 200 free not named David Popovici over the last decade, thanks to the 1:44.14 he clocked in the leadup to the Paris Olympics two years ago. He was more than a second slower in the final there, clocking 1:45.46 for 5th, and did not swim the event in Singapore last summer despite owning a season best of 1:44.25 which would have won bronze. He did lead off the heats team in the 4×200 free relay in a time of 1:45.65 though, as Germany placed 9th.
This season he has been 1:45.67, his slowest in-season time since 2023. With a far more limited schedule than in previous years, where he has often taken on the 200 back as well, he has made a statement. David Popovici looks to have the title sewn up, but Martens could be a clear second place among a strong chasing pack.
