European Swimming Championships: Ginevra Taddeucci, Queen of the Seine
Ginevra Taddeucci reigns supreme in Paris: the Italian swimmer won the gold medal in the women’s 10-kilometer event at the 2026 European Swimming Championships, currently underway in the French capital. In the open waters of the Seine, the Italian swimmer—who won bronze two years ago at the Olympics—dominated the long-distance race, finishing with a time of 2 hours, 7 minutes, and 49 seconds.
Finishing nearly 10 seconds behind was the runner-up, Hungary’s Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas, who claimed the silver medal after being left behind by the Italian swimmer in the final 500 meters of the course. Third place went to fellow Italian Linda Caponi, who took the bronze medal. The Polish athlete Klaudia Tarasiwicz finished fourth, while Spain’s Angela Martinez came in fifth.
With this victory, Ginevra Taddeucci becomes the third Italian to win European gold in the 10 km race. The updated medal count now places Italy in second place behind Great Britain (though with more medals). The Azzurri have won 4 gold, 3 silver, and 5 bronze medals so far.
“I’m very happy,” she said after the race. “Paris has always been a lucky place for me: I earned my first World Cup podium here, then there was the Olympic bronze, and now here we are. I was missing that gold in the 10 km, because at the European Championships I’d won the 5 km and finished second in the 10 km. I’m disappointed because it wasn’t an extremely competitive race; it almost felt like I was alone in the water. I missed my rival Moesha Johnson, but also other European athletes like Fabian, Boy, and De Valdes. You could feel their absence in the water. I wanted to finish ahead of them.”
For the Florence native born in 1997, this European gold medal represents the culmination of an extraordinary journey that began right on the waters of the Seine, where two years ago she won Olympic bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics, behind the Dutch swimmer Sharon Van Rouwendaal and the Australian Moesha Johnson. It’s a circle that closes in the most beautiful way, with the same athlete triumphing once again in the very same setting where she had already taken center stage.
