2026 Open Water World Cup Stop 2
- April 24-25, 2026
- Ibiza, Islas Baleares, Spain
- Meet Central
The Open Water World Cup makes a return this weekend with a record number of athletes participating in the Ibiza, Spain stop. We will be treated to a number of exciting storylines as European titans are showing out in full force, and top American names vie for a spot on the Pan Pac team.
The typical 10k race will be contested, which last month was won by Florian Wellbrock and Moesha Johnson in Somabay, Egypt. The second event will be the 3k sprint knockout, which made its World Cup debut in Ibiza last year before taking to the World Championships for the first time in Singapore.
See the full list of athletes here.
Red, White, & Blue Battlefield
Ibiza serves as the second of three meets that will determine the U.S’ Pan Pacs roster. As expected, we see virtually every big American name in the discipline throwing their name into the hat. Male and female favorites Ivan Puskovitch and Mariah Denigan, both of whom swept their races at Open Water Nationals, will look to hold on to their lead. Read more about the Pan Pac qualification process for open water here.
Puskovitch and Denigan will be joined by seasoned veteran names such as Becca Mann and Ashley Twichell, who both have strong international resumes and train at the TAC Titans.
On the younger end of the talent pool, we will see Open Water Junior National Champion Brinkleigh Hansen duke it out with the big girls. French-residing American teenager Colin Jacobs, who just committed to Cal this week, will take the short Mediterranean flight to Ibiza to lead America’s junior male contingent.
Though she didn’t go to Open Water Nationals, pool Olympian Claire Weinstein will race in Spain this week, perhaps in a late attempt to add an open water event to her Pan Pac itinerary. Though Weinstein has gravitated towards middle distance in recent years, most notably picking up a 200 freestyle bronze at the 2025 World Championships, her roots lie in open water swimming. Given her recent runner-up finish at the mile at the NCAA championships, her endurance might be intact to challenge top domestic names.
A Select Few From Magdeburg
Germany is only sending three swimmers, but it’s three of its heaviest hitters. Defending World Champion and last month’s Somabay World Cup winner Florian Wellbrock will be back as the heavy favorite. Joining him are fellow Germans Oliver Klemet, an Olympic silver medalist, and Lea Boy, who is a consistent Open Water World Cup medalist. Other top German names are at the nation’s pool championships.
Open water’s most dominant woman Moesha Johnson, who trains in Magdeburg with the Germans, will also be in Ibiza looking to get a second straight World Cup 10k win. Unlike last month in Somabay, Johnson will be joined by a slew of fellow Aussies for this stop.
Mediterranean Might
Starting with the host country of Spain, be on the look out 22-year-old Angela Martinez. At last year’s Ibiza stop, she had one of the best races of her career to earn gold on home soil. Joining her in the highlights of the Spanish roster is World Championship silver medalist Maria de Valdes. Among the Spanish men’s names is 4x European Junior pool medalist Cristobal Vargas.
France boasts a trio of top-ranking open water athletes in Logan Fontaine, Marc-Antoine Olivier, and Caroline Jouisse. Expect to see all three, especially the 2025 overall Open Water Cup champion Fontaine, in the mix.
Italy is typically the deepest country in open water swimming, and this session looks to be no different. Last month’s Somabay silver medalist Ginevra Taddeucci is back for more, as is Somabay men’s bronze medalist Domenico Acarenza. If you’re betting on consistency and momentum, look to 2025 World Championships silver medalist Gregorio Paltrinieri and 2025 Ibiza Champion Andrea Filadelli, both of whom will represent Italy again this weekend.
Though not a Mediterranean country, Hungary resembles the three aforementioned nations in open water depth and top-end prowess. All of their biggest open water names, including David Betlehem, Kristof Rasovszky, Bettina Fabian, Ajna Kesely, and Viktoria Mihalyvari will all take to the Balearic islands tomorrow. Betlehem has quite the hot hand as the silver medalist in Somabay and the world #1 ranking.
Notable Absences
For the second Open Water Cup stop in a row, Canada will be sending no athletes. At the first stop of the year in Somabay, Great Britain sent one athlete, and this time they will send zero. Brazilian dynamos Ana Marcela Cunha and Vivian Jungblut, both who rank in the top ten women worldwide, are not swimming. The former is training for an English Channel swim.
Brinkleigh Hanson, 5th in 3k Knockout. I’m watching replay now. Water temp 63F/18C.
Wow! Agressive racing from Brinkleigh Hansen. Highly recommend watching replay of the semifinal and final. Goes right onto Moesha Johnson’s hip! What a competitor!
I can’t seem to locate the replay. I am sent in circles on the world aquatics site and you tube isn’t much better.
swimswam photo curse :/
Results for the US swimmers? I watched a bit of the recorded video as soon as I got to work, and was struck by how much rougher the water was in Ibiza than in the lake in Sarasota. US long distance pool swimmers need to train more open water, if only to mix up the training.
The results were the same for the USA Swimmers. Do you know how fast the top 8 women at the 24 games were in the pool (1500)? Do you know how fast the top 8 men at the 24 Games were in the 1500? Bottom line, you can teach talent how to swim in Open Water. You can’t teach them how to break 16:12.00 for Women or 14:52.00 for men.
I know that. Finke and Ledecky don’t swim open water, and some of the other top US swimmers don’t want to swim open water because sea life makes them squeamish and / or they can’t see the bottom.
haha, I watched some of the mens race and was getting dizzy just watching the live stream, swam through big swells the entire circuit.
Same here. Only 3 foot rolling swells, but enough to make me sea sick.
The day before it was flatter than a pancake, no swell no chop at all, but what a difference for race day – that was hectic as hell and not something most of those athletes would have experienced in race conditions before.
US Women’s Results:
Denigan 14th
Hansen 15th
Mann 20 somethingth
Travis slightly higher 20’s
Siegel
Twichell
Weinstein DNF
SS photo curse seems to be back in effect.
Claire is on the best training vacation, you could ever think of.
Go Bingus go.
With so many nations using this as qualifying for future events, the battle within this race between athletes of the same nations will be very interesting. The water temperature will also play a big part as it is borderline wetsuit temperature, this will benefit or hinder particular athletes depending on their cold tolerances if the race proceeds without wetsuits.
Just to clarify, Weinstein cannot take any of the OW selection spots for Pan PACs because she did not compete at Nationals. Only the six swimmers selected from that meet are competing for the “up to four” OW spots at Pan PACs. That said, I believe a swimmer qualified in the pool can choose to swim OW at Pan PACs just like they can choose to swim any other event in addition to the event(s) for which they were selected in the pool.
I thought Pan Pacs was 4 athletes per gender per nation for the Openwater?
But also Pan Pac pool swimmer can elect to swim the Openwater at Pan Pacs as you say depending on the 4 athlete/gender/nation rule being adhered to also.
This is just my understanding and by no means should it be considered gospel.
She can compete in OW at Pan Pacs if she wants because of her pool spot but she cannot be one of the four OW swimmers selected from these races because she was not at OW Nationals and that was one of the selection criteria.
Thank you for clarifying, it appears I have misunderstood and from what you say there is no “4/gender/nation rule” as was my understanding (ie: the 4 selected Openwater swimmers plus any number of pool athletes that decide to enter as well, theoretically 6 or even 8 or 10 athletes from one nation can swim). This feels a strange situation that could end with preventative overtaking tactics from larger nations with greater numbers of swimmers entered, similar to the teams cycling road races, will be interesting to see if it plays out like that or not.