Six Storylines To Watch At The 2025 European SC Championships ...Middle East

By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam

2025 EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 23rd edition of the European Short Course Championships will kick off on Tuesday, December 2nd, as a who’s who of the continent’s aquatic talent will descend upon Lublin, Poland.

With the long course version of these championships taking place in just a few months time, we will see swimmers look to grab the bragging rights to take forward into the rest of this season.

There are numerous storylines to keep an eye on, including what will be a fantastic battle between Noe Ponti and Maxime Grousset in sprint fly, and here are six of the key storylines headlining the championships.

#1 No Russia

Somewhat of a storyline not to watch, but the absence of Russia and Belarus will have big ramifications for the finalists, medalists and champions next week.

Ilya Shymanovich (50 breast), Kliment Kolesnikov (50 back, 100 back) and Egor Kornev (50 free, 100 free, 50 fly) would all have been favorites, but those events now open up in their absence. Daria Klepikova (100 fly, 100 free) and Evgeniia Chikunova (100 breast, 200 breast) would have been threats on the women’s side as well.

Russia topped the medal table with 11 golds at the last European SC championships it attended in 2021, and you have to go back three further editions to 2015 to find the last time they finished below top spot.

They are the powerhouse nation in European swimming currently, and some events – men’s backstroke and women’s breaststroke – will suffer in their absence.

Russia’s non-entry here is due to Poland’s near-blanket ban on issuing visas to Russian Nationals. This has been in place since 2022, but further EU-wide restrictions were put in place in November just prior to a pair of sabotage attempts affecting the railway line between Lublin and Warsaw, Poland’s busiest. Polish intelligence has credited these to a pair of Ukrainians working for Russia, who had entered Poland from Belarus and returned there shortly after the attempts. European Aquatics have stated previously that they would abide by World Aquatics’ policies on the inclusion of neutral athletes.

CAS recently ruled on a similar situation regarding Indonesia’s refusal to issue visas to Israeli athletes for the upcoming World Artistic Gymnastics competition. As the issuance of Visas is a National sovereignty issue, it is outside the purview of a sporting federation such as FIG in that case, or European Aquatics in this one. The United States recently acted in the same way to block Cuban Volleyball players trying to compete in a NORCECA continental tournament in Puerto Rico and prevent Iranian officials travelling to Washington D.C. for the FIFA World Cup draw in December. 

#2 Return Of The 4x50m Relays

At the recent world championships there was a slight schedule change from previous years. The 4×50 relays were only contested in the mixed category, cutting out the men’s and women’s 4×50 free and 4×50 medley relays.

In Lublin next week they are back on the table, although we will not see any 4x100m or 4x200m relays contested. We did see some rapid relay swims at the last edition of these championships back in 2023, including the 5th fastest men’s 4×50 free swim in history from Great Britain.

Without Ben Proud they may not have the firepower to repeat that effort, but Italy, France, and the Netherlands have historically been strong in these events. Keep an eye out for Beryl Gastaldello on France’s relays – she had a phenomenal short course season last year and will be key to their relay medal hopes.

Only two relay events on the schedule carry over from the World Championships last year – the mixed 4×50 free and mixed 4×50 medley. With only 50m relays on the schedule in Lublin, these events will be short and sweet – and allow for specialists such as Thom de Boer and Sara Junevik to shine.

#3 Men’s Distance Freestyle Intrigues Again 

In keeping with the current theme in long course, it is the distance freestyle events which look the most interesting on the mens’s side.

The 400 free will see a trifecta of stars lead the way, with Duncan Scott, Danas Rapsys, and Lucas Maertens a good shout to be the three men on the podium. Scott (6th – 3:34.46) and Rapsys (3rd – 3:33.20) are among the fastest in history in the event, while Maertens has a best of just 3:43.64, the 16th-fastest swimmer in Germany’s history. Having cracked 3:40 in long course to break the world record earlier this year though, a huge PB will be in store in the shorter pool.

Dan Wiffen and Kunzey Tuncelli will also be ones to watch, although they are both more suited to the 800 and 1500. Wiffen holds the World Record in the 800, while Tuncelli has the World Junior Record in the 1500.

Wiffen did not have the best of summers in Singapore, but was phenomenal at this meet two years ago with a triple-gold-medal performance. Now training mainly with the Pro group at Cal, he’ll hope to be back on the podium again this year.

#4 Roos Vanotterdijk‘s Time To Shine

Vanotterdijk has had a phenomenal year, winning a pair of silvers in sprint fly in Singapore before resetting multiple short course national records on the World Cup tour this fall.

She has the heaviest slate of entries of any swimmer, with nine individual events along with a brace a relays. She will almost certainly scratch some of those – the 200 free seems likely to go – but her ability across all four strokes plus the IMs means that she would be a medal threat in almost anything.

A notable example is the 200 breaststroke, where she is the #2 seed – and by just a quarter of a second. A swimmer who was a butterfly specialist has turned into multi-stroke weapon under Mark Faber, and now holds Belgian records in every single stroke. Her long course breakout came this summer, but she looks primed to truly shine in Lublin next week.

#5 Kamminga vs Corbeau A Highlight Of Men’s Breaststroke

Arno Kamminga saw all three of his individual short course Dutch records go down earlier this fall. Caspar Corbeau, who along with Vanotterdijk trains under Mark Faber, lowered all three breaststroke standards including dipping under 2:00 in the 200 breaststroke for the first time in history.

Kamminga had had rotten luck with injuries in recent years, and has not been able to recapture his 2021 form where he was 57/2:06 in long course. However, he was still an Olympic finalist last summer and is the 11th-fastest performer in history in the short course 100.

Corbeau had been on a different plane so far this season though. If he’s in the same form as he was on the World Cup series then Ilya Shymanovich’s World Record in the 100 is in danger, and he would be a betting favourite to sweep all three distances.

With best times of 25.52/55.55/1:59.52, and only a single other swimmer entered who has been faster in any of those events (Nicolo Martinenghi in the 50 breast), the bragging rights this year look like they’ll go to the former Texas and Indiana swimmer. He will have a strong field behind him though, including GB’s breakout star Filip Nowacki.

The two Dutchmen each took home a gold and a bronze medal two years ago. Look for them to make a similar impression again this time around.

#6 Ponti & Grousset A Heavyweight Match-Up On Fly

The top two finishers in the 100 fly from the Singapore World Championships this summer will go head-to-head again in short course next week. Ponti has the edge, owning the European Record in both the 50 (21.32) and 100 (47.71),but Grousset has been consistently improving ever since winning long course world gold in 2023.

Both swimmers have had excellent short course seasons so far. Grousset reset some of his own French Records at the French Short Course Championships, with Ponti throwing down some speedy swims on the World Cup tour in North America.

They were each multi-medalists at the 2023 edition, but ponti was the clear top dog in the butterfly events as he swept all three distances. Fresh off a French record of 22.02 in the 50 fly, Grousset will have hopes to challenge him but his work will be cut out. 

We will also see these two match up in the 100 IM, where they are the top seeds. Two of the premier faces of European men’s swimming right now, these battles should not disappoint.

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