By Will Baxley on SwimSwam
European Aquatics has announced that David Popovici and Marrit Steenbergen are the organization’s 2025 athletes of the year.
Popovici received 37.94% of the vote to get the award over 2024 winner Leon Marchand, who received 31.52% of the vote. The vote was weighted 30% based on public selection and 70% by discretion of European Aquatics.
In the announcement of the award, European Aquatics noted Popovici’s performance on both the senior and the junior level. At the World Championships, the “skinny legend” topped the fastest 100 freestyle podium in history in 46.51, the second fastest performance in history. He made it a double win with a 1:43.53 200 free gold.
The Romanian athlete pulled off the same 100/200 double earlier in the summer at the European Junior (U23) Championships. His 100 time at this meet was 46.71, which was at the time a new European record before he later broke it again at Worlds.
European Aquatics’ selection of Popovici contrasts that of World Aquatics, which named Marchand its 2025 Male Swimmer of the Year. Both Popovici and Marchand won two individual world titles this summer, and Marchand rewrote the men’s 200 IM world record to a remarkable 1:52.69. In the European sphere of competition, however, the Frenchman did not have the additional junior hardware to match his Romanian counterpart. Marchand turned 23 this year, making him too old to compete in the Euro Juniors meet, unlike 21-year-old Popovici.
After a breakout year, the Netherlands’ Marrit Steenbergen won the women’s honors with 36.29% of European Aquatics’ vote. Her closest rival was Italian distance swimmer Simona Quadarella, who received 24.48% of the vote.
In addition to an exceptional 100 freestyle world title and aiding her country to bronze in the 4×100 free in Singapore, Steenbergen was also the golden girl of the SC European Championships in Lublin. There, she won five events and set as many continental records.
In one session, the 26-year-old Dutchwoman doubled up with a 100 IM (56.26) and 200 free (1:50.33) victory, breaking Katinka Hosszu and Sarah Sjostrom’s European records in the process, respectively.
Two days later, she once again broke a pair of Hosszu/Sjostrom continental records in the same night en route to double gold. This time, it was the 200 IM (2:01.83) and 100 free (50.42).
Her final gold came from leading off the Netherlands’ women’s 4×50 medley relay. Her 25.47 split took down Sara Curtis’ European record.
Quadarella, the de facto runner-up of the award, had a monster World Championships that resulted in two European records. First, she unleashed a 15:31.79 for a silver medal in the 1500, becoming the fastest non-Ledecky performer in history by seven seconds. She followed that up with an 8:12.81 800.
SwimSwam named Marchand and Steenbergen its European Swimmers of the Year in our annual Swammy awards. See our full list of 2025 Swammy recipients here.
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