Marchand still the home hero in Paris as new record breakers emerge
Swimming – European Aquatics Championships – Paris Aquatic Centre, Paris, France – August 16, 2026 France’s Leon Marchand in action during the Men’s 400m Freestyle Final REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
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PARIS, Aug 17 : Leon Marchand remained the home hero two years on from the Paris Olympics but swimming’s European championships, which ended at the weekend, saw the emergence of new world record breakers to challenge the Americans and Australians.
Italy’s Sara Curtis, who turns 20 this week, twice smashed the 50m backstroke record on her way to gold in Paris last week and Germany’s Johannes Liebmann, also 19, knocked almost four seconds off American Bobby Finke’s 2024 time in the men’s 1,500 freestyle.
Curtis’s 26.63 and 26.56 seconds, beating the previous best of 26.86 by Australian Kaylee McKeown, was the first time since 2009 that a European had held the world record in the event. The last time a European man held the 1,500 world record was 1992.
Curtis, who swims for the University of Virginia and looks a hot prospect for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, ended up with six medals – a gold, two silvers and three bronzes – from six races as Italy won the most medals (20) and finished second in the table with six golds to Britain’s eight.
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The 50m backstroke, a regular event at world championships, will be an Olympic discipline for the first time in 2028.
Europeans hold 16 of swimming’s 42 world records, with the rest in the hands of North Americans, Australians and Chinese.
Four-times 2024 Olympic gold medallist Marchand, world record holder in the 200m and 400m Individual Medley, maintained his gold standard with two continental titles in Paris – the 200m butterfly and 400m freestyle.
Marchand dropped events involving the breaststroke due to a thigh injury but beat Germany’s world record holder Lukas Martens in the 400 free, an event the Frenchman rarely races.
Lithuania’s women’s 50m breaststroke world record holder Ruta Meilutyte took her third European title in that event.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom won the women’s 50m butterfly for a record-equalling 18th continental gold medal, a year after having her first child and following a 20-month absence from championship swimming.
Italy’s Simona Quadarella completed an unprecedented third consecutive women’s golden triple in the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyle, while Olympic champion Nicolo Martinenghi took the men’s 50 and 100m breaststroke double. Ireland’s Ellen Walshe completed a women’s 200 and 400 IM double.
Scottish women – Angharad Evans, Katie Shanahan and Keanna MacInnes – won three of Britain’s four individual golds. MacInnes, 24, claimed two golds on the final day – the 200m butterfly and the 4x100m medley.
On the men’s side, 18-year-old Briton and world junior champion Filip Nowacki stepped up with gold in the 200m breaststroke while triple Olympic champion Adam Ramsay-Peaty, the 50 and 100m world record holder, left empty-handed.
“We wanted to come to this meet and see if we could see some new people really step up, and I think we have, particularly on the female side,” said Britain’s head coach Steven Tigg.
Source: Reuters
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