Russia won gold in the team free routine at the European Artistic Swimming Championships in Paris, beating Spain by 2.6 points to take the title 285.0346 points to 282.3541. Italy finished third with 256.1558.
The European Championships matter in their own right, but the team events also count as an early gauge ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, the ultimate target for both nations. Russia's win showed the country has fully reclaimed its place at the top of artistic swimming after years out of competition over suspicions of state-sponsored doping and the war in Ukraine. It also showed that Spain can now compete with the most decorated team in the sport's history.
Russia's New Coach, Spain's Response
Russia competed under a new head coach and alongside Svetlana Romashina, a seven-time Olympic champion and 21-time world champion. Andrea Fuentes, Spain's coach, said she takes the result as a spur to understand where her team stands and how it can keep progressing toward the Olympics, while acknowledging that medals will only get harder to win from here.
The margin between the two teams, 2.6 points, reflected how close the contest was in what has long been called the chess match of artistic swimming.
A Costly Error in the Preliminary
Spain also finished second in the preliminary round, but only because of a base mark, a heavy penalty imposed after an error. Had Spain executed the routine cleanly in the final, it would have been in serious contention for gold.
Before each competition, coaches submit a card listing the elements their swimmers will perform and in what order. Judging that Fuentes's team could outscore them, the Russian coaching staff raised the difficulty of their routine, a gamble that offered a clearer route to gold if it succeeded but carried a greater risk of costly mistakes.
Both Teams Clean, Russia's Gamble Pays Off
Both teams executed all six required hybrid elements, the standard moves performed with the feet, and the three required acrobatics without error. There was a tense moment when the last Russian hybrid, the one where they had raised the difficulty, was sent for review, but the team was ultimately not penalized with a base mark.
Spain, as is usually the case, scored better on artistic impression, one of the team's strengths: its ability to convey emotion. The Spanish routine, titled La Locura, Spanish for The Madness, features a recording of tennis great Serena Williams saying that being called crazy means you are on the right path, a message that could apply to Fuentes's own coaching philosophy. Russia prevailed by bringing more difficult elements to the pool.
Absences and Injury
Two of Spain's usual starters were missing from the routine: Iris Tió, who was rested because she competes in seven other routines at these Championships, and Dennis González, who spent the past year recovering from a serious shoulder injury that had threatened to end his career.
A Different Format Awaits at the Olympics
Russia takes the European gold, but at the Olympics this would only be the first of three head-to-head contests between the two teams. The European Championships award separate medals for the free routine, the technical routine and the acrobatic routine. At the Olympics, team events produce a single podium combining the results of all three routines, and duet events combine the free and technical routines into one result. There are no individual events at the Games.
China, coached by Anna Tarrés and now a major new power in the sport, will also compete at the Olympics.
Spain's Third Silver of the Championships
The team free silver was Spain's third of these Championships, following silvers in duet free and mixed duet free. The team also won two bronze medals in individual events the previous day.
Iris Tió took bronze in the solo free routine. She made no errors, but her routine lacked the difficulty to challenge for a higher medal. She finished behind Belarus's Vasilina Khandoshka and Germany's Klara Bleyer, whose routine was choreographed by Ona Carbonell, a Spanish legend of the sport.
Jordi Cáceres also took bronze, in the men's solo, behind Britain's Ranjuo Tomblin, who won gold, and Italy's Filippo Pelati, who took silver. Cáceres moved into third place after Russia's Trofimov, the last swimmer to compete, was penalized with two base marks.
