Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable.

Four races and four gold medals. In clearly dominant fashion.

Florian Wellbrock (27, Germany, MSF bio here, World Aquatics bio here, @flo.swim) was absolutely Phelpsian (Spitzian) in conditions that would be unfathomable in the controlled environment of a 50m pool:

• uncertain delays due to poor water quality
• 30+°C (86+°F) water temperatures with a full-body, skin-tight, all-black techsuit on with a swim cap
• unexpected wavy conditions
• a total of 6 races in 4 days
• competing against gold medalist including Gregorio Paltrinieri (30, Italy, MSF bio here, World Aquatics bio here,  @greg_palt) and Kristóf Rasovszky (28, Hungary, World Aquatics bio here) day after day

The first three German swimmers of Celine Rieder (24, World Aquatics bio here) + Oliver Klemet (23, World Aquatics bio here) + Isabel Gose (23, World Aquatics bio here) gave a nice 10-second leg to anchor leg Wellbrock who held off Paltrinieri to win the 6 km Mixed Team relay.

The Relay culminated four eventful days at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships on  Sentosa Island in Singapore.

What Wellbrock did was unfathomably incredibly and has set the gold standard for open water swimming for all time.

Ginevra Taddeucci (28, Italy, MSF bio here, World Aquatics bio here, @ginevrataddeucci) was also highly successful in her own right with four silver medal performances in 4 days over 4 different events. “I love warm water and for me, it’s the perfect conditions.”

Now a lot of these open water athletes take a few days of well-earned rest and head to the more temperature-controlled confines of the pool where many will swim in 800m and 1500m freestyle events.

6 km Mixed Team Relay Results

1. Germany: Celine Rieder (24) + Oliver Klemet (23) + Isabel Gose (23) + Florian Wellbrock (27) = 1:09.13.30
2. Italy: Barbara Pozzobon (31) + Ginevra Taddeucci (28) + Marcello Guidi (28) + Gregorio Paltrinieri (30) = 1:09.15.40
3. Hungary: Bettina Fabian (20) + Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas (21) + Kristóf Rasovszky (28) + David Betlehem (21) = 1:09:16.70
4. France: Clemence Coccordano (20) + Marc-Antoine Olivier (29) + Ines Delacroix (22) + Logan Fontaine (26) = 1:09:24.70
5. Australia: Chelsea Gubecka (26) + Nicholas Sloman (27) + Moesha Johnson (27) + Kyle Lee (23) = 1:09:59.30
6. Neutral Country B: Margarita Ershova (19) + Kseniia Misharina (16) + Saveliy Luzin (19) + Denis Adeev (27) = 1:10.24.00
7. USA: Mariah Denigan (22) + Brooke Travis (25) + Charlie Clark (23) + Joey Tapper (23) = 1:10:27.20
8. Brazil: Ana Marcela Cunha (33) + Viviane Jungblut (29) + Matheus Melecchi (19) + Luiz Felipe Loureiro (21) = 1:12:01.60
9. China: Muran Tian (27) + Jinhou Zhang (22) + Kexin Wang (20) + Tianchen Lan (20) = 1:13:33.20
10. Chinese Taipei: Jun-Yan Tsao (17) + Jia-Shien Lin (17) + Yu-Wen Teng (28) + Cheng-Chi Cho (26) = 1:14:57.00
11. Kazakhstan: Mariya Fedotova (26) + Darya Pushko (21) + Galymzhan Balabek (25) + Lev Cherepanov (24) = 1:15:00.20
12. South Africa: Matthew Caldwell (19) + Amica de Jager (26) + Kellen Jones (15) + Catherine van Rensburg (21) = 1:15:25.20
13. Ecuador: Dann Martinez (19) + Esteban Enderica Salgado (34) + Ana Abad (21) + David Farinango (24) = 1:15:30.60
14. Singapore: Li-Shan Chantal Liew (26) + Artyom Lukasevits (20) + Kate Ona (17) + Russel Pang (15) = 1:15:39.00
15. Turkey: Atakan Ercan (18) + Su Inal (15) + Selinnur Sade (17) + Emre Sarp Zeytinoglu (18) = 1:15:42.80
16. Mexico: Diego Obele Cisneros (23) + Sharon Guerrero Cho (19) + Alan Gonzalez Torres (18) + Paulina Alanis Hernandez (20) = 1:15:54.30
17. South Korea: Sebeom Oh (22) + Jaehun Park (25) + Sueah Kim (18) + Jiyeon Hwang (17) = 1:16:01.00
18. Thailand: Ratthawit Thammananthachote (22) + Kamonchanok Kwanmuang (20) + Chonpasanop Chatwuti (14) + Nithikorn Jeampiriyakul (20) = 1:16:37.30
19. Hong Kong: Chin Ting Keith Sin (30) + Tsz Yin Nip (25) + Pac Tung Nikita Lam (24) + Tsun Hin Chan (20) = 1:18:48.60
20. India: Prashans Manjunath Hiremagalur (19) + Diksha Sandip Yadav (19) + Meenakshi Menon (15) + Army Pal (23) = 1:20:59.80
21. Namibia: Nico Esslinger (19) + Reza Westerduin (17) + Madison Sara Bergh (16) + Tristan Timothy Nell (17) = 1:22:07.50
22. Mongolia: Sugar Ganzorigt (19) + Maidar Gongor (18) + Altannar Amgalan (17) + Anungoo Temuujin (17) = no time (times were given for the first 3 swimmers)
23. Kenya: Samir Bachelani (19) + Aryan Awe Joseph (15) + Sera Makenna Mawira (17) + Maria Bianchi (19) = no time (times were given for the first 3 swimmers)

© 2025 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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