By Will Baxley on SwimSwam
He has done it again. One of open water’s most decorated athletes, Florian Wellbrock, won his first European 10k title in Paris’ Seine River this morning, hitting a thrilling sprint finish to defeat his rivals.
Wellbrock started off the race in typical Wellbrock fashion, never dipping below third place in the first three quarters. With less than two kilometers left, though, Wellbrock faded to sixth place.
“I was already beaten after 8.5 km because physically I wasn’t the strongest swimmer today,” Wellbrock would tell his Instagram followers after the race.
“But I wanted this medal more than anyone else. This gold was won through mental strength.”
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His mental strength brought him back to third with 600 meters to go and sprinted in to clear the field by over two seconds.
His final time was 1:55:18.3. David Betlehem of Hungary scored silver in 1:55:20.5. Wellbrock’s teammate Oliver Klemet rounded out the podium with a 1:55:24.8. This was a notably slow race time-wise. The 2024 Olympic podium in the same river was nearly five minutes faster.
Betlehem coming in at a podium spot comes as a surprise to nobody. He ranks #1 on the open water world rankings, and he won the overall 2026 World Cup title. Similarly to the victor, Betlehem made his move to the front of the pack at around 7 kilometers and never looked back. It marks his best European Championships result ever in the event.
Oliver Klemet’s bronze made it a sweet day for Germany and for the Magdeburg training group. Klemet and the Seine seemingly get along well. Today marks the 24-year-old’s first major individual medal since his silver showing at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Over 10 seconds back from Klemet, Italians Gregorio Paltrinieri and Marcello Guidi came 5th and 6th. Briton Hector Pardoe scored sixth place. Paltrinieri was the defending European Champion in the event from 2024.
The host nation, France, had relatively underwhelming results. Its three top male stars – Logan Fontaine, Marc-Antoine Olivier, and Sacha Velly – placed 9th, 10, and 21st, respectively. Olivier and Velly registered 1st and 3rd at 8.1 km before fading in the tail end.
Reigning Olympic Champion Kristof Rasovszky also had a disappointing return to Paris. Ranking as high as 3rd at mid-race checkpoints, the Hungarian national faded to 23rd by the time he reached the finish line.
For full results, click here. Stay tuned for our women’s 10k recap which will be coming soon.
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