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
The women’s 10km is set to kick off the open water events at the 2024 Paris Olympics in just a matter of hours. With the men’s race coming on Friday, we now have the official start lists for both the men’s and women’s 10km, which you can find below.
START LISTS
First and foremost, it appears we are forging ahead with the open water events as they battle with water quality in the Seine. After Tuesday’s training was cancelled due to the deteriorating water quality, swimmers took to the Seine for training on Wednesday. Tuesday’s “familiarization session” was canceled when water quality measurements were worse than they had been on previous days.
- What you need to know about E. coli in the Seine River
- Assessing the presence of E. coli in the Seine River for the Olympic Triathlon
News dropped a few days ago that American David Johnston had dropped out of the men’s 10km after a positive COVID test. With Johnston pulling out of the race as he recovers from COVID, Ivan Puskovitch will be the only American in the men’s race.
This is a tough field in the men’s 10km here in Paris. At the top, we have the likes of Germany’s Florian Wellbrock, Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri in the mix. Wellbrock won gold in this event back at the Tokyo Olympics 3 years ago. He also won gold in the 10km at the 2023 and 2019 World Championships, as well as gold in the 5km at the 2022 World Champs, and a 4×1500 open water relay gold in 2022 to boot.
Meanwhile, Paltrinieri, it’s safe to say is one of the most decorated men’s distance swimmers of all time. In the pool, Paltrinieri won gold in the 1500 free at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and has earned 2 silver medals and a bronze. He earned silver in the 1500 free a few days ago here in Paris, while he also earned bronze in the 800 free last week. In Tokyo, Paltrinieri earned the bronze medal in the 10km. The 29-year-old has also won World Champs gold in the 10km in 2022, as well as gold in the open water relay in 2023. He’s earned a trio of World Champs silvers in the open water events – a pair of silvers in the 5km in 2022 and 2023, and a silver in the relay in 2019. Paltrinieri also earned bronze in the open water relay at the 2022 World Champs. On top of that, the veteran is a 6-time European Championships open water gold medalist.
Paltrinieri swam better than Wellbrock in the pool here in Paris, but that isn’t necessarily predictive of how they’ll race in the open water, since it’s so different from pool swimming.
With Wellbrock and Paltrinieri coming in as favorites in this race, there’s also Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen to keep an eye on. Wiffen won gold in the 800 free last week in a spectacular race, then earned bronze in the 1500 free a few days ago. Wiffen doesn’t have the most prolific open water background in this field, but he raced great in the pool in Paris, so he’s certainly a name to watch.
A young swimmer who should be fun to watch is Turkey’s Kuzey Tuncelli. The 16-year-old had a coming out party in the 1500 here in Paris, making it through to the final from a non-circle-seeded heat in prelims. He would then go on to finish in 5th in the event in finals on Sunday. Of course, he doesn’t have the deepest open water background in this field either, however, a young rising star is always live to make some noise.
Flipping to the women’s race, it looks like we’ve maintained the original entries. There will be 24 women competing in the race in the morning.
Perhaps the most prolific swimmer in this field is Dutch 30-year-old Sharon van Rouwendaal. Van Rouwendaal won gold in the women’s 10km at the Rio 2016 Olympics, as well as silver in the event in Tokyo. On top of that, she’s a 3-time World Championships gold medalist in open water swimming, twice in the 10km (2022 and 2024) and once in the 5km (2024). She has, in total, won 11 open water World Champs medals in her career. Of course, she’s also been highly successful at the European Championships, where she has also won 10 medals in open water events. That list includes 8 gold medals, 3 of which came in the 10km, and the most recent in 2022.
There’s also American Katie Grimes, who fits a similar mold to van Rouwendaal. Grimes, 18, is the only swimmer other than van Rouwendaal to have earned a medal in pool swimming and open water swimming at the same World Championships. That happened last summer at the World Championships in Fukuoka, where Grimes earned silver in the women’s 400 IM and bronze in the 10km. Grimes wasn’t at the top of her game in the 1500 free here in Paris last week, however, as mentioned above, that isn’t really all that indicative of how she’ll race in open water. Grimes is also a 2-time World Junior Open Water Championships gold medalist.
We also need to mention defending Olympic Champion Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil. She won gold in the 10km back in Tokyo 3 years ago, beating van Rouwendaal out by just 0.9 seconds at the finish. The 32-year-old has a long and storied open water career. She’s won 16 World Championships medals in her career, all of which have come in open water events. She’s also the somewhat rare open water swimmer who is just as good in the “short” race, the 5km, as she is in the longest race, the 25km. Cunha has won World Championships gold in the 25km 5 times in her career, while she’s won 5km gold twice, and bronze 4 times. In total, she’s won 7 World Championships golds in her career.
Gubecka is also a threat in the women’s race. Very consistent.
I would watch for Kirpichnikova if she’s still entered here – Philippe Lucas’ open water swimmers tend to do really well.
Are there regular reports on river flow rates in different locations on the competition route? I’ve only seen them once in a while when the flow rate is anomalously high.
Today’s report was .4 m/s on the left bank, .8 m/s at the pontoon boat (in the middle).
I think the Hungarians and Olivier are also among the favorites on the Men’s side.
It will be interesting to see how they deal with the current especially swimming against it towards the finish line. It will also be very difficult for one swimmer to break away from the peloton and lead from start to finish.
Swimming up and down the river is not traditional open water swimming so we will see how that changes the tactics.
that is a good call. kristof will be keen to go one better and is pretty good in the rough. anyone know if romanchuk is doing this too?
No Romanchuck.
Currents will possibly be the biggest hurdle for the winners to overcome, those who swim the easiest upstream during each race should have the most energy for the swim finish but if someone leaves too much distance between them and the leader at that final upstream turn it could be game over.
Conditions should suit the cleanest most efficient strokers, like Wellbrock and Wiffen on the Men’s side but there is any number of about 10 or 12 with a realistic shot at glory. Paltrinieri, Betlehem and Tuncelli swam great 1500’s last week so you have to include them in any discussion also. Personally I have coin on Olivier at home but it really is wide open in my opinion.… Read more »
Yeah, agreed. I wonder how much open water experience (or luck of) will play a role here. Wiffrn practically has no experience but you can’t count him out if he stays with the rest of them.
For sure experience could be a major factor. Feeding station should be interesting for those without Openwater experience and this is 1 place where the inexperienced may get dropped and out of the conversation. Air temp may have come into play also cause if it was colder the inexperienced may gamble not feeding to avoid being dropped at that point, but current conditions in Paris make this not an alternative. This uncertainty and variability is what makes these Openwater races so interesting to me, so many different outcomes possible, but whoever harnesses those variables to their benefits claims the chocolates normally. I am pumped for racing.
Also team tactics may come into play if countries with 2 swimmers work together with sharing the lead to aid the other with drafting upstream.
The question should be how many end up in hospital?
Hopefully none, but I won’t be surprised if there are some.