2025 EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- December 2-7, 2025
- Lublin, Poland
- SCM (25 meters)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
The entry lists for the 2025 European Short Course Swimming Championships have been released, with a loaded group of swimmers set to compete in Lublin, Poland, next week.
However, perhaps the biggest takeaway from the release of the psych sheets is that no Russian or Belarusian swimmers will be racing. European Aquatics was reportedly working with the local organizing committee in Lublin to make a determination on the status of Russian and Belarusian swimmers earlier this month.
Although World Aquatics has allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at its recent major championships as neutrals, including the 2024 World Short Course Championships and the 2025 World Aquatics Championships, European Aquatics has maintained its restrictions on barring Russians and Belarusians from competing in senior events, up until the news reported earlier this month that European Aquatics would follow the new World Aquatics guidelines that allow Russians to compete in team events.
Without Russian swimmers racing, reigning 2024 SC world champions Miron Lifintsev (men’s 50/100 back) and Ilia Borodin (men’s 400 IM) will be two of the biggest names missing. Borodin, Kliment Kolesnikov, Evgeniia Chikunova, Svetlana Chimrova and Belarusian Ilya Shymanovich also won individual gold the last time Russians competed at the European SC Championships in 2021.
The list of swimmers who will be competing next week in Lublin is a strong one, with 19 individual medalists from the 2024 Short Course World Championships and 20 defending champions from the 2023 European SC Championships in the field.
KEY WOMEN’S ENTRIES
Headlining the women’s field are reigning short course world champions Ruta Meilutyte and Isabel Gose, along with French speedster Beryl Gastaldello and Polish sprinter Kasia Wasick.
Meilutyte has been virtually unbeatable in the 50 breast since her return to the highest level of the sport in 2022, but she hasn’t competed at the European SC Championships since 2017, when she won double gold in the women’s 50 and 100 breast.
The Lithuanian star, who has also won four straight LC world titles in the 50 breast in addition to winning the last two gold medals at SC Worlds, is the top seed in the 50 and also comes in seeded 5th in the 100 breast.
Her biggest challengers in the sprint breaststroke events will be Estonian Eneli Jefimova, the defending champion in the 100 breast who is coming off her first few months of NCAA competition at NC State in the U.S., and German Anna Elendt, the reigning world champion in the LC 100 breast from this past summer.
Gose is the reigning short course world champion in the 1500 free, but the German won’t race that event in Lublin, instead opting for the 200, 400 and 800 free. She holds the top seed in both the 400 and 800, having won silver in the latter at the 2024 SC Worlds, with Great Britain’s Freya Colbert and Italian Simona Quadarella seeded 2nd in each respective event. Quadarella is the defending champion in the 400 free and the reigning SC World silver medalist in the 1500 free.
Gastaldello has been a short course powerhouse throughout her career, and is coming off winning silver in the 100 free, 50 fly and 100 IM at the 2024 SC Worlds. Those will be the three events she races in Lublin, and in the 100 free, she’ll be defending the Euro SC title she won in 2023.
As for Wasick, the Polish veteran and sprint specialist, she holds the top seed in the 50 free after winning bronze in the event at the 2024 SC Worlds. At the recent World Cup series in North America, she won the Triple Crown bonus in the 50 free after sweeping the event at all three stops.
The other individual 2024 SC World Championship medalist in the field is the Netherlands’ Tessa Giele, who won silver in the 100 fly last December in Budapest and tied with Greece’s Anna Ntountounaki (who will also be in the field) for gold in the 50 fly at the 2023 SC Euros.
Other defending champions we’ve yet to mention will be Great Britain’s Freya Anderson in the 200 free, Sweden’s Louise Hansson in the 100 fly and Germany’s Angelina Köhler in the 200 fly.
In addition to Jefimova, there will be several other current NCAA swimmers racing on the women’s side, including Italian Sara Curtis (Virginia), Great Britain’s Eva Okaro (Texas), Hungarians Minna Abraham (USC) and Nikoletta Padar (Texas), and Spain’s Carmen Weiler Sastre (Virginia Tech).
Some other key names worth mentioning include two-time individual world champion Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands, Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko, Belgian all-arounder Roos Vanotterdijk, British breaststroker Angharad Evans, and Irish fly/medley specialist Ellen Walshe.
Gorbenko won double gold in the 50 breast and 100 IM at the 2021 SC Worlds, and was also the European SC champion in the 200 IM that year. She’s entered in the women’s 50 and 100 breast, and 100 IM and 200 IM next week.
KEY MEN’S ENTRIES
Swiss star Noe Ponti towers over the men’s psych sheets as the lone multi-individual 2024 SC world champion entered to compete in Lublin, as the 24-year-old comes in owning the top seed in the 50 fly, 100 fly and 100 IM, and the #2 seed in the 200 fly.
At the 2024 SC Worlds, Ponti won gold and set new world records in the men’s 50 and 100 fly, and he also claimed gold in the 100 IM. After winning individual silvers in the 50 and 100 fly at the 2025 LC World Championships, he won the 100 fly twice during the 2025 World Cup circuit, though at the final stop in Toronto, he saw Canadian Josh Liendo steal his world record by three one-hundredths in a time of 47.68, so look for Ponti to target that time during the meet.
Ponti is also the defending European SC champion in the 50, 100 and 200 fly.
Ponti’s biggest challenger in the 50 and 100 fly will likely be Frenchman Maxime Grousset, who won silver behind Ponti in the 100 fly at the 2024 SC Worlds, along with Austrian Simon Bucher, who was 5th in that final. In the 100 IM, Ponti will have to watch out for another Austrian, Bernard Reitshammer, who is the defending European champion and won silver last December at SC Worlds behind Ponti.
Grousset is also the defending Euro champion in the 100 free.
In the 200 fly, Italian Alberto Razzetti will go head-to-head with Ponti, with Razzetti having broken the European Record (1:48.64) en route to winning silver at SC Worlds last year. Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski won bronze in Budapest and will also be a major threat.
Razzetti will also be among the favorites in the 200 and 400 IM, having won medals in both at the 2024 SC Worlds, along with coming in as the defending champion in the 400.
The other reigning SC world champion in the mix on the men’s side is Spaniard Carles Coll Marti, who won the 200 breast last December, but will have his work cut out for him in the form of Dutchman Caspar Corbeau, the defending European champion who just last month became the first man under the 2:00 barrier in the event (1:59.52).
Corbeau will also be the favorite in the 50 and 100 breast, having won seven of the nine breaststroke events during the 2025 World Cup circuit (losing the 50 and 100 one time apiece).
However, reigning Olympic champion Nicolo Martinenghi might have something to say about that, as the defending champion in the 50 breast and 2021 gold medalist in the 100 breast comes in lurking down on the psych sheets with entry times well shy of the lifetime bests (25.37/55.63) he set at the 2021 edition.
Dutchman Arno Kamminga, the defending champion in the 100 breast, will also be in the field coming off a solid showing at the Dutch Qualifiers in October. Turkey’s Emre Sakci, the current world record holder in the 50 breast, will also be a threat after winning silver in the event last year at Worlds.
Other 2024 SC World Championship medalists in the field will be Germany’s Florian Wellbrock, who won silver in the 800 and 1500 free in Budapest, Turkey’s Kuzey Tuncelli, who was the bronze medalist in the 1500 last year, and Italian Lorenzo Mora and Frenchman Mewen Tomac, who went 2-3 in the 200 back in 2024.
Mora is the defending Euro champion in the 200 back, while Tomac won the 50 and 100 two years ago in Otopeni.
The reigning world champion in the 200 back, Hubert Kos, is one glaring name missing from the entry lists, having already committed to racing at the U.S. Open instead.
In the men’s distance events, Wellbrock and Tuncelli will face off with Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen, who swept the men’s 400, 800 and 1500 free at the 2023 SC Euros. Wiffen is also the reigning Olympic champion in the 800 free and owns the SCM world record in the event at 7:20.46.
Another man to watch for in the 400 free will be Lukas Martens, the reigning LC world champion who became the first swimmer in history sub-3:40 in the big pool earlier this year. Martens is only entered in two events, also racing the 200 free.
The two defending champions we’ve yet to mention are British stars Duncan Scott and Matt Richards, who head up a 17-member GB squad in Lublin. Scott is the defending champ in the 200 IM, Richards won gold in 2023 in the 200 free, and they’ll be joined by Olympic gold medalist Tom Dean, backstroke stud Oliver Morgan and rising breaststroker Filip Nowacki at the meet.
And Lukas Martens also doesn’t get a mention. Try not just look at the first 3 seeds
I wonder whether Ben Proud will watch these champs.
It’s interesting that there is so little overlap in the relays being contested at the two main short course championships.
4 out of 6 relays at Euro SC Championships were not contested at 2024 Short Course Worlds (Mens and Womens 4×50 Free and Medley).
7 out of 9 relays at the 2024 SCWs are not being contested at Euro SC (five 100 metre relays and both 200 relays).
Short Course Worlds dropped a number of their 50 metre relays but Euro SC are sticking with their 50 metre relay focus.
Corbeau vs martinenghi vs kamminga vs nowacki could be tasty over 100m!!!
The fact that LEN bans Russia but has no problem with Israel competing kind of says everything
Come on now, you know the Palestine folk don’t matter. Their skin is just a little too brown
LEN no longer bans Russia. Poland is refusing to give Russians visas.
I agree, it’s an absolute double standard!!
Does anyone know when will Ksawery Masiuk arrive at Texas ?
He was supposed to arrive last season…
Surely at some point, Bowman will have to make a decision about his spot/scholarship.
He got a brother?
January
And Wiffen doesn’t get a mention?
hes literally right there
When i said this i think he wasn’t
After Singapore I really though we were finally over with thi bs of not hanving Russian swimmers compete. This wolrd naver ceases to amaze me (negatively). I’ve never been much of a fan of short course, so skipping this one won’t be much of a problem to me, but I was really looking forward to next year’s long course Euros, now I’m really afraid we’ll have another crippled Euros. I hope I’m wrong, but seeing how France’s (and Paris’s) authorities speak about Russians it’s likely
After WW2 ended Poland probably really thought they were finally over with this bs of being attacked by power hungry dictators from a neighbouring country. But here we are.
Boo-hoo… We don’t care, for as long as their sons are in Ukraine and their govt remains hostile to the continent in general, they aren’t welcome for sport, or as tourists.
Look who’s speaking, Dee from peaceful Great Britain lol.
Did you know that your beloved nation is hostile to the entire world and colonized a whole continent called Africa ?
Look at yourself in the mirror before trying to give lessons to others. It looks you’ve been consuming a lot of BBC propaganda lately.
And why aren’t Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish athletes allowed to compete under their flag and listen to their anthems huh ?
And while you’re at it, explain to me how colonist England is allowed to take Scotland and Wales and take a part of Ireland and call the whole thing Great Britain ?
You shouldn’t be welcomed for sport or as tourists… Read more »
Several years ago there was a referendum in Scotland, most Scottish people voted to remain in UK. But of course for Russian trolls its hard to understand the concept of democracy, in Russia there is no democracy only cult of brute force and ass-licking of dictator.
Deary me, I’ll think of you as I board my flight to Poland to cheer on the British athletes next week. I’d say enjoy the “Friendship Games” next year, but I guess they’ll have to be cancelled for lack of friendships once again 🙂
Slava Ukraini! Heroyam slava!
As soon as you’re put on the spot, you start talking in riddles 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️
Answer the question or are you afraid of getting jailed by your beloved UK police which is arresting people lately for “offensive online posts” ?
Ah, I didn’t want to give a history lesson on swimswam but here we go…
Great Britain is a geographic term for the largest of all the Islands of the British Isles, not the name of the country. The country is called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and is the result of the legally binding Act of Union signed by the two crowns (England & Scotland) 300 years ago. The constituent nations are England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland had a referendum in 2014, and NI has a legally defined right to a referendum enshrined in the Good Friday peace agreement signed in 1997. “England” is not stopping anything by force, public opinion in Scotland,… Read more »
The deep state and the English monarchy will never allow such thing. Keep dreaming about referendums or whatever.
The parliaments in Scotland, Wales and NI are all handpicked and controlled like marionettes by London.
Once you’re colonized by a superpower, you can only gain independence by force.
Now back to your question, How is Russia waging a war on you?
Of course if you consume BBC all week, that’s what they will make you believe in.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there have been 5 waves of NATO expansions, which causes a threat to Russia’s national security and they’ve warned about it each time.
Now what do you expect when NATO starts building… Read more »
Are you a Russian troll from Moscow ? Keep politics outside sport. It’s not the french government which decides or not the participation of Russian swimmers. Unlike Russia, France is a democracy. For now it’s European Aquatics which does decide. European Aquatics has decided the non-participation of swimmers at the SC Euros in Poland. And this is European Aquatics which will decide the participation or not of russian swimmers at LC Euro next summer in Paris.
European Aquatics has already decided the participation of Russian swimmers at team events earlier this month. Read the news next time.
The head of the Russian swimming federation said that they will be boycotting this SC Euros due to visas, but they will be present next summer in Paris.
The one that will be banned is Poland, who won’t be hosting sporting tournaments moving forward.
No, I’m italian and not a troll, I’m just a sports fan who believes the best athletes have the right to compete (if they haven’t done something wrong themselves, I’ll never consider nationality a crime). As far as I know there’s no ban on Russians swimmers to take part in euros, it’s a decision made by Poland, I said that’s that risk for next year because I remembered Paris mayor saying Russians weren’t welcomed in last year’s olympics. That’s all, just my assumption, and since I’m not a troll I won’t say more, I don’t like arguing with strangers online, I was just stating my opinion