2024 Paris Olympics Open Water Swimming
- Women’s 10km – Thursday, August 8
- Men’s 10km – Friday, August 9
- Seine River, Paris
- Event Page (Schedule + Results)
- Women’s 10km Entries
- Men’s 10km Entries
Women’s 10km Start Lists
The 2024 Olympics open water swimming events kick off on Thursday morning, August 8th, in the Seine River that winds through Paris. The competitors will complete six circuits of a 1.67-kilometer loop between the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont de l’Alma; they’ll have the current at their backs going downstream, and they’ll fight against it on the way back.
We begin with the women’s 10km race, which pits Dutch veteran and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Sharon van Rouwendaal against defending Olympic Champion Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil. American Katie Grimes, who won the bronze medal in the 10km at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, is also a threat for the Olympic title this year. Her teammate Mariah Denigan, who placed 6th at the 2024 World Championships, is making her Olympic debut this year.
France has a pair of entrants who can’t be overlooked, especially given the unbridled enthusiasm displayed by the home crowd. Caroline Jouisse and Oceane Cassignol are first-time Olympians; they qualified by finishing 7th and 10th, respectively, in the 10km at the 2024 World Championships. Lisa Pou, who changed sporting nationalities from France to Monaco last fall, will also be swimming in front of a friendly audience.
Women’s Open Water 10k Top 8:
- Sharon van Rouwendaal (NED) – 2:03.34.2
- Moesha Johnson (AUS) – 2:03.39.7
- Ginevra Taddeucci (ITA) – 2:03.42.8
- Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA) – 2:04.15.7
- Bettina Fabian (HUN) – 2:04.16.9
- Giulia Gabbrielleschi (ITA) – 2:04.17.9
- Océane Cassignol (FRA) – 2:06.06.9
- Caroline Jouisse (FRA) – 2:06.11.0
Moesha Johnson of Australia led the field on the first downstream leg, making it around the two buoys in front of Bettina Fabian of Hungary, van Rouwendaal, and Cunha. As much as they bunched together on the downstream leg of lap 1, the swimmers were forced by the current into a long line, butting up against the river wall, on the way back. Italians Ginevra Taddeucci and Giulia Gabbrielleschi led the way, with Johnson in third place.
As swimmers came in for fueling at the feed station on the top end of the course, the pack divided into smaller groups. 2016 gold medalist Van Rouwendaal took over the lead in the front pack, headed downstream on lap 2 followed by Cunha and Johnson.
The second group rejoined the lead group on the upstream half of lap 2 but van Rouwendaal maintained her position in front. Johnson passed the Italian duo and held on at second place, about a body length behind van Rouwendaal. Australia’s Chelsea Gubecka of Australia was in 5th place.
As they finished lap 2 and made it through the chute, they stopped to fuel at the feeding station and then took off to attack the 3rd downstream leg. Van Rouwendaal, Johnson, Taddeucci, and Gabbrielleschi held their formation at the lead of the lead pack. Japan’s Airi Ebina and Australia’s Gubecka moved up to 3rd and 4th behind van Rouwendaal and Johnson on the upstream leg of lap 3. Again, the chase group closed the gap with the lead group on the upstream leg, but van Rouwendaal and Johnson allowed no one into their space. Cunha worked her way back to 4th place as they swam past the grandstands full of cheering flag-wavers.
Johnson maneuvered past van Rouwendaal in the chute leading to the feed station and held the #1 position going downstream on lap 4. The field separated again going with the current, as Johnson, van Rouwendaal, Taddeucci, Gubecka, and Cunha comprised the lead pack, followed by Gabbrielleschi, Fabian, Brazil’s Viviane Jungblut, and Ebina.
Johnson came out of the feed station in the lead on the downstream leg of lap 5, with only van Rouwendaal and Taddeucci behind her in the lead group. The chase group was about 18 seconds behind, led by Cunha, Gabrielleschi, Fabian and Gubecka. As they made their way back upstream, there were three distinct groups – for the first time, the chase pack did not catch the leaders, which made it seem like a daunting task to vie for a medal with one lap to go.
At the last feeding station, van Rouwendaal fueled up and headed downstream, right on Johnson’s toes, with Taddeucci still in 3rd place just behind. As they made the final turn at the Pont d’Alma, it felt like the calm before the storm. Johnson, with 1:50.11.7, led by only 0.6, and the sprint was about to begin. Swimming into the current, van Rouwendaal tried to move to Johnson’s inside. Taddeucci was still only a body back.
Van Rouwendaal made her move on the last buoy, going wide to get out in front on the turn. She surged to the lead and pulled ahead by a body. At the opening to the chute, Johnson tried to pull the same move, but Rowendaal cut off the lane and sprinted to the finish. The Dutchwoman won with 2:03.34.2, 5.5 seconds ahead of Johnson and 8.6 ahead of Taddeucci. Cunha was 4th, leading the next group of finishers.
Grimes was 15th, Denigan 16th
SVR dedicated her win to her dog Rio who died in May.
Océane is the greatest name ever for an OW swimmer.
If the US is going to excel at this sport, they have to commit some actual resources to it. Our top athletes (and this is no knock to them) are pool swimmers in landlocked states. How often are they training in open water? How often are they practicing sighting and drafting? How often are they practicing navigating currents and buoys? We need a national training group that trains somewhere with actual open water and preferably more than one source (i.e. near an ocean and a river or lake). The skills required for open water are different than the skills for pool swimming and just upping yardage in the pool isn’t sufficient.
This isn’t really practical, especially for college swimmers. The US is a big country, and the open water swimmers aren’t going to travel to train with each other in the ocean (there are lakes and rivers in Nevada, Indiana, and West Virginia, btw!). I think there used to be somewhat of and OW crew at TAC, but that hasn’t made much noise recently.
It is practical if we want to grow the sport. A training site can be used for post-grad swimmers and for college swimmers in the summer and for various training camps. Why wouldn’t these athletes travel/move to train with the best of the best? Pool swimmers do it all of the time. I’m aware of the fact that there are lakes and rivers in Nevada, Indiana, and West Virginia, but I haven’t heard anything about our open water swimmers utilizing those regularly (let me know if I missed something). As for the TAC group, were they swimming regularly in open water? I think this needs to be a training site created by USA Swimming, not an informal group at a… Read more »
Update: I found one interview where Dennigan says she swims in a lake when it warms up enough, but in Indiana, that isn’t going to be until April at the earliest.
WV has one natural lake and a bunch of polluted rivers. The Mon river in Morgantown is… technically swimmable but not pleasant.
Having a training center with “best” conditions for open water would be counter productive. You need to train for conditions like …. this.
There is a small but robust amateur Open Water Marathon Swimming community in the US. There’s a lot of knowledge out there. See the Marathon Swimmers Federation website, especially the Long Swim Database and event calendars.
Finding clean, safe OW locations isn’t as easy as finding a pool. And even then there might be caveats, like avoid “X” location, water quality reports are “here”, jellyfish / sea lice / swimmers itch are an issue during certain months, even just where can I park and access the water. Local knowledge is invaluable.
Becky D, practicing for these types of conditions is exactly what I’m talking about. You can’t practice for this in a pool. Open water swimmers need to be in a body of water with a current to learn to swim with a current. In tidal areas, athletes could practice under different conditions based on the time of day/tide. They need to swim in rain, wind, cold water, and hot water.
SwimLong, I am a member of the amateur open water swimming community and am a former college swimmer, which is why I understand how different the training is. USA Swimming needs to tap into this community to better prepare their open water swimmers. Elite or even rising open water… Read more »
My point was that there’s no one best place to prepare. Maybe thats not what you were saying, but its the message i got. Centralization wont work well. Some type of higher visibility tour of existing events/locations would be good.
Katie 💔
Where did Katie Grimes finish
15th
PVDH hugging van Rouwendaal and Muffels was the cherry on the top!
Michael Andrew would have even split that race