By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam
2026 European Swimming Championships
August 10-16, 2026 Paris, France — Olympic Aquatics Centre LCM (50 Meters) Meet Information Meet Central Entries SwimSwam Preview IndexMarrit Steenbergen‘s Swimmer Of The Meet Potential
Marrit Steenbergen is one of the very best swimmers in the world right now, and has the opportunity to come away with a boatload of medals. She currently has six European Championship gold medals, which ranks her just outside the top 20 most decorated female swimmers, but there is real potential for her to vault up into the top five next week.
Steenbergen will swim five individual events: the 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 50 back, and 100 back. She has set lifetime bests in all except the 200 free this season, and set a new world record of 51.68 in the 100 free at the Sette Colli Trophy in June. With the exception of the 50 free, where Sarah Sjostrom is the favorite, she could win all of those.
She will also be key for the Dutch relays, and was already throwing down 51-point 100 free splits before dropping half a second off her best to set that world record. If she can start splitting 51-low regularly, her medal count will only go up.
There are realistic gold medal opportunities in the 50 back, 100 back, 100 free, 200 free, women’s 4×100 medley relay, and women’s 4×100 free relay for Steenbergen. She has medal chances in the 50 free, women’s 4×200 free relay, mixed 4×100 free relay, and mixed 4×100 medley relay. If she swims them all – a tall order with a minimum of 20 races – she could hit double figures for medals. She was the best swimmer at the European Short Course Championships in December, and looks likely to earn that accolade again in Paris.
Will Angharad Evans And Great Britain Be In April Form Or July Form?
Angharad Evans looked like a serious medal contender in the 100 breaststroke for the World Championships last summer, but missed the semi-finals entirely and looked off her best on relays too. This year, she looks better than ever and should make her second major international long course final after finishing 6th at the Olympic Games in 2024.
Her season best of 1:04.96 is nearly a second faster than anyone else, and she has three swims under 1:05.50. However, she made the final of both the 100 breast and 200 breast harder than they needed to be at the Commonwealth Games last month, significantly off her best times in both despite winning two gold medals.
That could be the nerves of competing in front of a Scottish crowd in Glasgow, and now that she has won her first major title the nerves could be settled. If she matches her season best times, she probably wins another double in Paris. If she swims the times she did in the finals in Glasgow, she likely won’t medal.
Evans was not alone in being slower last month than she had been in-season. The majority of the stars were, including Freya Colbert, Abbie Wood, Lauren Cox, as well as Duncan Scott, Ollie Morgan, and Max Litchfield on the men’s side. Seeing if those swimmers, most of whom are medal contenders, can return to form in Paris will be intriguing.
Sarah Sjostrom‘s Quest To Become The Most Decorated Female Swimmer
Sarah Sjostrom will be competing at her ninth European Championships this summer, having attended every edition from 2008 to 2022. Over that period she has racked up 17 gold medals, 15 of them individually, and 28 medals in total.
She is the most decorated swimmer in history in the latter metric, but she is one behind Franziska van Almsick for the most decorated female swimmer by gold medals. Sjostrom has two shots at an individual title this year – the 50 free and the 50 fly – and is the heavy favorite in both events.
She should overtake van Almsick, less than 12 months on from giving birth. To return not just to the top level, but her top level – she has been 23.86 in the 50 free and 25.05 in the 50 fly already this season – is seriously impressive, and she will almost certainly add another accolade to her list this summer.
Junior Swimmers Making Their Mark
There has already been a European Junior Championships this season, in Munich at the start of June, but you would be forgiven for thinking some swimmers had missed the memo and turned up in Paris a month later instead.
Several juniors with realistic medal hopes will be in attendance. Amalie Smith won the European Junior title in the 400 IM for the second year in a row, and is coming off a Commonwealth Games at which she set new European Junior records in both the 200 IM and 400 IM. Alessandra Mao and Bianca Nannucci will play an important part on Italy’s 4×200 free relay, Kseniia Misharina is the favorite for bronze in the 1500 free, and Vivien Jackl could win medals in the 800 free and 400 IM.
We did not see many junior swimmers on an individual podium two years ago – in fact, the only two were Lana Pudar in the 200 fly and Vivien Jackl in the 400 IM – but it looks like there should be several this time around.
Quadarella Aiming For Double Figures
Only five swimmers have won ten individual gold medals at the European Championships. Sarah Sjostrom (15), Katinka Hosszu (13) and Yana Klochkova (10) are the three women on that list, but Simona Quadarella has a chance to join them next week.
The Italian swimmer is currently on eight individual gold medals, already the most successful Italian by that metric, having won the 400 free, 800 free, and 1500 free in both 2018 and 2020 before winning the 800 free and 1500 free in 2022.
She is the hot favorite in both of those events again in Paris, and has a shot at gold in the 400 free. She has been a force on the continental stage for nearly a decade now, with the medals to show for it, and is coming off her best season ever after winning 1500 free silver in a huge new European record of 15:31.79 last summer.
She also set a new European record of 8:12.81 in the 800 free, and at 28 years of age this may not be last opportunity for her to win European titles. A distance double this year, though, would be very well received.
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