Iceland Tops Swim Medal Table at 2025 GSSE, Multi-Gold Performances from Antoniou and Teixeira ...Middle East

By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam

2025 Games of the Small States of Europe 

The swimming portion of the 2025 Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) wrapped up on May 30th in Andorra la Vella, Andorra, with Iceland finishing as the top-performing nation in the pool. The four-day competition was held at the Centre Esportiu Serradells, where over 150 athletes from nine nations competed across a full slate of Olympic-distance swimming events.

The GSSE is a biennial multi-sport event open to European countries with populations under one million. First held in 1985, the Games give athletes from smaller nations an opportunity to compete internationally and often serve as a stepping stone to higher-level events. The 2025 edition—the 20th in history—featured athletes from Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, and San Marino.

GSSE medal table by total medals:

Cyprus was led by Kalia Antoniou, who delivered one of the meet’s standout performances. She swept the women’s 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 50-meter butterfly, and 50-meter backstroke, setting two national records in the 50 fly (26.80) and 50 back (29.27)—swimming them just 15 minutes apart. In total, Antoniou, who trains in the United States at the University of Alabama, collected four individual golds and contributed to Cyprus’s relay efforts, making her one of the top-performing swimmers of the competition

Host nation Andorra enjoyed a standout showing in the men’s distance freestyle events, with Kevin Teixeira winning gold in the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter freestyle. The triple win was Andorra’s most successful swimming performance at the GSSE and marked Teixeira as the first Andorran to win three individual golds at a single edition of the Games.

Luxembourg was led by Ralph Daleiden Ciuferri, who claimed gold in both the 100 and 200-meter freestyle. His 100 freestyle time of 49.65 set a new GSSE meet record, and he played a key role in several of Luxembourg’s relay appearances, notably splitting an opening 49.91 leg of the 4×100 freestyle relay en route to a gold in the event. 

Iceland showed consistent strength across strokes and distances, claiming multiple individual and relay titles. Birgitta Ingólfsdóttir took gold in the women’s 50 and 100-meter breaststroke, while Iceland’s mixed medley relay closed out the meet with gold in one of the fastest times in GSSE history with a 3:54.91.

Iceland saw plenty of other success as well, with three new national records in the span of the four-day competition: the first of which came on day one, with the team of Gudmundur Rafnsson, Ýmir Sölvason, Birnir Hálfdánarsson, and Simon Statkevicius taking down the men’s 400-meter freestyle relay record with a time of 3:25.01 and a second-place finish.  The following evening saw similar results with a new national record in the men’s 400-meter medley relay, from the team of Gudmundur Rafnsson, Snorri Einarsson, Birnir Hálfdánarsson, and Simon Statkevicius with a time of 3:43.14 for a gold medal finish and a new GSSE meet standard. The final bested record came on night three when Snæfríður Jórunnardóttir placed second in the women’s 400-meter freestyle with a 4:17.79 to become the top Icelandic performer in the history of the event. 

The GSSE swimming program follows the standard Olympic event lineup, with races from 50 to 1500 meters in all strokes, as well as the 200 and 400 IM and mixed relays. Preliminaries were held in the morning, with finals in the evening. While the meet is not part of LEN or World Aquatics points systems, it is recognized by national federations as a key performance benchmark and is often used to help select rosters for the European Championships or World Championships.

For athletes from smaller federations, the GSSE offers not only a medal opportunity but also a platform for international experience and recognition. For swimmers like Antoniou, Teixeira, and Ciuferri, the 2025 edition produced career-defining performances—and, in some cases, record-breaking moments on the international stage.

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