European Aquatics has announced the hosts for 12 new European Aquatics Championships events across the continent, including dnotably hosts for next year’s European Junior Championships and European U23 Championships.
Samorin, Slovakia will serve as the country’s first-ever host for a major European Aquatics event when it hosts the back-to-back European U23 Swimming Championships from June 26th-28th and the European Junior Swimming Championships from July 1st-6th. The organization had previously announced that it was in talks with Slovakia to play host to the meets.
Samorin is a small town in western Slovakia, just southeast of the capital Bratislava. While the city has a population of under 14,000, it is home to the x-bionicsphere Olympic training center. The massive athletics complex of around 250 acres includes training facilities for 27 Olympic disciplines along with 282 hotel rooms, 4 restaurants, 2 bars, and 12 congress and conference halls.
The complex is home to a 50 meter outdoor pool and a 25 meter indoor pool. The temperature in late June and early July averages highs in the low 80s Fahrenheit (25-27 Celsius) and lows in the low 60s F (16-18 C), and is historically the wettest part of the year in the region (though it is not a particularly-rainy region to begin with).
Slovakia has not won a medal at the European Junior Championships since the 1993 dissolution of Czechoslovakia via the Velvet Revolution. Sprinter Teresa Ivan did win bronze in the 50 free and silver in the 50 free skins race at the inaugural edition of the U23 Championships last year in Ireland.
List of Major European Aquatics events confirmed on Tuesday
- Junior Open Water Championships – Setubal, Portugal – June 19th-21st
- Junior Diving Championships – Athens, Greece – June 23rd-29th
- Junior Artistic Swimming Championships – Athens, Greece – June 25th-29th
- Junior Swimming Championships – Samorin, Slovakia – June 26th-28th
- U23 Swimming Championships – Samorin, Solvakia – July 1st-6th
Confirmed Major European (Pool and Open Water) Swimming Dates and Locations for 2025
- Junior Open Water Championships – Setubal, Portugal – June 19th-21st
- Junior Swimming Championships – Samorin, Slovakia – June 26th-28th
- U23 Swimming Championships – Samorin, Solvakia – July 1st-6th
- European Short Course Swimming Championships – Szczecin, Poland – December 2-7
- European Masters Short Course Swimming Championships – Szczecin, Poland – December 10-16
I have distant relatives in Samorin lol. One of the few towns left in Slovakia with a Hungarian ethnic majority.
I wonder if that had anything to do with the decision (the current mayor is Hungarian). Swimming isn’t massively popular in Slovakia.
IDK, I don’t think that these meets are important enough for ethno-geopolitics to play that big of a role.
Slovakia probably wants to step into the world of sports tourism, and they’ve got this incredible Olympic sports center, so it kind of makes sense.
I figured too. Still, it probably won’t hurt when it comes to how successful it will turn out to be.
The owner of this complex is some Saudi or Emirati prince. I don’t think the mayor has much to do with anyting that’s going on there.
I must say that it is one of the best sport centres I ever been to!
It’s too expensive and the food is atrocious but I live in Vienna and it’s just so conveniently located from here. But the facilities are great. Wish they had a 50m indoor pool.
Real ones hate inferior and unsustainable privately funded athletic infrastructure (USA)