British Olympic Open Water Team to Attend European Championships in June

By Riley Overend on SwimSwam

Britain is keeping its Olympic pool swimmers at home for the 2024 European Championships in June — only about a month before the Paris Games — but the nation’s open water Olympians will reportedly make the trip to Belgrade, Serbia.

According to British swimming news site Pullbuoy, Hector Pardoe, Toby Robinson, and Leah Crisp will represent Britain in the Ada Ciganlija, a peninsula in the Sava River’s course through Belgrade.

The pool swimmers will be selected after next week’s British Championships with an eye toward the future, based on those “on a trajectory for a podium performance at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.” However, those headed to the European Junior Championships from July 2-7 in Lithuania are not expected to be included on Britain’s Euros roster.

At the 2024 World Championships last month in Doha, Qatar, the 22-year-old Pardoe took bronze in the men’s 10km race, becoming the first British open water swimmer to win a Worlds medal since Welsh countryman David Davies in 2008. Robinson, 27, placed 15th in the men’s 10km at Worlds last month. Crisp, 22, placed 24th in the women’s 10km at Worlds last year and 17th this year.

The schedule makes it slightly easier for open water Olympians to manage the Euros double. Open swimming will take place before the pool portion at the European Championships, from June 10-13, and after pool swimming at the Paris Olympics, from Aug. 8-9 in the Seine River. Pool swimmers only have about five weeks between the two meets, compared to about seven weeks for their open water counterparts.

The European Championships are traditionally moved into the spring during Summer Olympic years, but this year’s calendar is atypical with the 2024 World Championships rescheduled to February. The Netherlands will not send any swimmers to the European Championships this year, calling the calendar “overcrowded.”

The 2024 European Championships were initially slated to be hosted by Kazan, Russia, prior to the invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.

SwimSwam: British Olympic Open Water Team to Attend European Championships in June