The Acropolis Swim Open in Athens, Greece will return in 2024 with a €50,000 ($54,000) prize pool.
The meet will be held from April 26-28 at the renovated Athens Olympic Aquatic Center, which plays host to 12 pools and a 5,000 seat main indoor arena.
The meet has played host to big names in the last two years, including Pieter Coetze and Kylie Masse, who were the top prize money earners last season. Others to have participated in recent years include Michael Andrew, Kira Toussaint, Matt Sates, Katinka Hosszu, Eneli Jefimova, and World Record holders Szebastian Szabo and Emre Sakci. In total, there were over 250 swimmers from 40 countries at last year’s meet.
No names have been announced yet for this year’s meet.
The 2024 edition of the meet, like the 2023 edition of the meet, has been approved as a Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualifying event.
Meet Format
The Athens Olympic Aquatic Center is an indoor facility with an eight-lane 50m pool, with a 25m warm-down pool. The venue has the ability to seat ~6,000.
The meet will be conducted in a prelims-finals format with A/B/C finals for the 50-100-200 events, with the C finals only being available to junior swimmers. Junior swimmers for this meet are considered boys 18 & under, and girls 17 & under.
The 400 events will be swum with A/B finals (open to all ages), whereas the 800-1500 events are to be swum as timed finals. The slower heats of the distance events will be swum in the morning, with the championship final in the evening session.
The meet has €50,000 ($54,500 USD) available in prize money to be awarded to swimmers and coaches based on performance. This is a decrease from the 2022 edition of the meet which had, €70,000 ($75,000 USD) up for grabs. Athletes’ performance is judged using the World Aquatics Point Scoring system, and can also earn prize bonuses for breaking records. The top athletes across events (by stroke, and then by longer distances) will be awarded €350. Coach’s awards will be awarded by points compiled across their athletes.
Below is the prize breakdown. A full breakdown of all the available prizes can be found here.
Individual Events
| 1ST PLACE | €400 |
| 2nd Place | €200 |
| 3rd Place | €150 |
Athletes Ranking
| 1ST PLACE | €3,000 |
| 2nd Place | €1,800 |
| 3rd Place | €1,200 |
| 4th Place | €800 |
Coaches Ranking
| 1ST PLACE | €1,200 |
| 2nd Place | €800 |
| 3rd Place | €600 |
| 4th Place | €400 |
Record Bonuses
| WORLD RECORD | €10,000 |
| European Record | €6,000 |
| World Junior Record | €2,500 |
| European Junior Record | €1,500 |
| Hellenic Record | €200 |
| Meet Record | €100 |
| Hellenic Junior Record | €50 |
Entries for the meet open on April 8 and close on April 15.
MAndrew better not.