European Aquatics introduced Wednesday that Paris-St Denis has been chosen as the location of the 2026 European Aquatics Championships, following up on the anticipated success of the 2024 Olympic marketing campaign this summer time.
The occasion, which is able to mark the a hundredth anniversary of the European Championships, will likely be hosted by the French Swimming Federation (FFN). The primary European Championships was hosted in Budapest in 1926.
France’s Ministry of Nationwide Training, Youth and Sports activities hosted a press convention in Paris the place it was declared that the championships would “unite European Aquatics round a typical imaginative and prescient: that of a sport that’s respectful of the surroundings, accessible to all, and targeted on innovation and efficiency.”
Minister Amélie Oudea-Castera mentioned: “I’m delighted that we are able to announce the internet hosting of the 2026 European Championships, confirming France’s rise as a serious organizer of main worldwide sporting occasions, culminating with the Video games in lower than six months’ time and these European Championships two years later. However there may be additionally nice satisfaction in seeing how these sport occasions assist in the transformation of our areas and, above all, the schooling of our younger folks.”
Press Convention 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒔 👀
100 years after the inaugural European Aquatics Championships, Paris – Saint-Denis will host the 2026 version of the competitors 🤩
📷: KMSP/S.Kempinaire pic.twitter.com/wTuIxFUjS1
— European Aquatics (@LENaquatics) January 24, 2024
The occasion will use the identical venues because the aquatics occasions on the Paris Olympics, with the Olympic Aquatics Centre (OAC) being the hub of the pool swimming, diving, water polo and creative swimming competitions. The OAC is notably the one everlasting sports activities facility constructed for the 2024 Video games.
The Seine, which has prompted some complications resulting from poor water high quality within the lead-up to the Olympics, will host the open water occasions. There will even be a platform constructed on the Seine to be able to host the excessive diving competitors.
The 2026 occasion will mark the third time France has hosted the European Aquatics Championships and the second time Paris has been the hub metropolis. Paris hosted the third version in 1931, after which in 1987, the japanese French metropolis of Strasbourg hosted the occasion.
The announcement capitalizes on the current surge we’ve seen in French swimming, spearheaded by famous person Leon Marchand who’s coming off successful three World Championship titles and breaking a historic world document on the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
Marchand opted out of the 2022 European Championships in Rome, however will certainly be circling the 2026 occasion on his schedule.
One other breakout star within the pool for France is Maxime Grousset, who gained gold within the males’s 100 fly and a pair of bronzes within the 100 free and 50 fly on the 2023 Worlds, whereas Jules Bouyer and Alexis Jandard (males’s 3-meter synchronized diving) and Gary Hunt (males’s excessive diving) additionally gained medals in Fukuoka and can seemingly characteristic prominently on the 2026 Euros for the French contingent.
The 2024 version of the European Aquatics will run later this 12 months, June 10-23, within the Serbian capital metropolis of Belgrade, which was moved from Kazan, Russia as a result of ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Official dates for the 2026 occasion haven’t been set, however in non-Olympic years, the European Championships often happen in August.
