By Will Baxley on SwimSwam
Day two of open water swimming at the 2026 European Aquatics Championships was a rich-get-richer story. All gold and silver medalists from yesterday’s 10k races seamlessly recovered to reach the same podium spot in today’s 5ks.
On the women’s side, this meant a second straight victory for Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci. The 27-year-old once again swam a strong and tactical race to strike gold. She stopped the clock in 1:02:31.2, two seconds ahead of Hungarian Viktoria Mihalyvari. This puts the 23-year-old at two silvers this week. She has previously won European gold at last year’s 10k race as well as the 400 IM in 2022.
Like in the 10k, it was a 1-3 podium finish for the Italian women. This time, though, the bronze went to 32-year-old Barbara Pozzobon. She has typically seen her best results in the 25k event, notching a gold, silver, and bronze in the event at the 2024, 2022, and 2020 European Championships , respectively. Today, though, she tapped into a more speed-oriented side by leading the pack for the entire first half of the race. She held on with the two other medalists to only finish 3.9 seconds behind Taddeucci. It was her first medal of this caliber in a 5k.
Poland’s Klaudia Tarasiewicz was just one place away from a podium finish for a second day in a row.
The men’s podium was nothing short of star-studded, with the three of the sport’s top performers assuming the medal positions. Like yesterday’s 10k, the winner was German stud Florian Wellbrock. He took the lead at about a quarter of the way through the race and never looked back. His final time stood at 55:40.2. World #1 David Betlehem got a second silver in as many days with his 55:42.2 for second. Betlehem has been a player for several years, but 2026 marks his most consistent year yet in open water. After a close podium miss yesterday, Olympic gold medalist Gregorio Paltrinieri got his hand on the wall for bronze.
It has been an utter monopoly of podium space for Italy, Germany, and Hungary. While these are typically the three most dominant countries in the sport, some might be surprised to not see host nation France not jockeying with these countries on the medal table. Their top stars were all out of the running in yesterday’s 10k. Today, Sacha Velly just missed a podium spot with his 4th place finish, but other stars like Caroline Jouisse and Logan Fontaine were out of the leading pack again. Frenchman Marc-Antoine Olivier was a DNF in today’s 5k race.
The country having the strongest championships thus far, though, is definitely Italy. See the swimming medal table below so far.
Swimming Medal Table After Day 2 Of Open Water
Country Gold Silver Bronze Total Italy 2 0 3 5 Germany 2 0 1 3 Hungary 0 4 0 4Read the full story on SwimSwam: Wellbrock & Taddeucci Keep Momentum Going With European Championship Titles In 5k
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