The heavyweights of the ice swimming world have descended upon Oradea, Romania for the IISA 1st European Championship that will be held between February 1st – 4th, concurrent with the heavyweights of the marathon swimming community getting ready for the 2024 Olympic qualification races at the World Aquatics Championships that are held in much warmer waters in Doha, Qatar.

The opening ceremonies are completed, the initial press conferences are over, the athletes are resting comfortably, and the officials are getting ready for a lot of action starting tomorrow.

Oradea, Romania

Vlad Lucian Arhire, a sports journalist from the National Television TVR, moderated the ice swimming press conference with Ram Barkai, founder of the International Ice Swimming Association, Marcel Dragos, Vice Mayor of Oradea, Paul Georgescu, president of the Ice Swimming Romania and Open Water Sports Association Romania, and IISA Board Vice Presidents Petar Stoychev and Jonty Warneken, referee Ovidiu Tirla, and representatives from Oradea and the event.

320 swimmers from 27 countries including Albania, Cyprus, Great Britain, Lithuania, Portugal, Turkey, Andorra. Czech Republic. Greece, Luxembourg, Romania, Ukraine, Armenia, Denmark, Hungary, Malta, Russia, Austria, Estonia, Iceland, Moldova, San Marino, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands, Ireland, Monaco, Serbia, Belarus, Finland, Israel, Montenegro, Slovakia, Belgium, France, Italy, Isle of Man, Netherlands, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Spain, Bulgaria, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, Croatia, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Poland, and Switzerland will take part.

Race Day 1 on February 2nd 2024

• 500m freestyle
• 50m butterfly
• 100m backstroke
• 50m breaststroke
• 4x50m mixed freestyle relay
• 500m freestyle

Race Day 2 on February 3rd 2024

• 1000m freestyle
• 100m freestyle
• 100m breaststroke
• 4x50m VIP relay

Race Day 3 on February 4th 2024

• 250m freestyle
• 50m backstroke
• 100m butterfly
• 50m freestyle
• 4x250m country relay freestyle

https://youtu.be/A1lhHv_y3zw

With the water temperature around 3°C, all the events will be streamed live on the IISA YouTube TV channel (watch here).

For more information, visit here.

Superstars like Olympian and world record holder Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria [shown above], long-time rival and fellow English Channel swimmer, professional marathon swimmer, and ice-swimming record holder Christof Wandratsch of Germany [shown above], Olympian Rostislav Vítek of the Czech Republic, King of the Ice Marcin Szarpak of Poland [shown below], and Queen of the Ice Alisa Fatum of Germany [shown below], the Ice Kilometer champions.

Bay of Doha, Qatar

The women’s highly competitive 10 km world championship marathon swim will be held tomorrow, February 3rd at the Old Doha Port in Qatar. 2,600 athletes from 197 countries will compete in 75 medal events with the men’s and women’s 2024 Paris Olympic qualification races as two of the most highly anticipated races: women on Saturday with the men on Sunday.

These first two races – 72 women and 79 men – will be tremendously competitive, arguably the most intense race during the Olympic quadrennial, because the marathon swimmers will be fighting for the remaining 19 spots at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games 10 km marathon swim.

While Leonie Beck of Germany, Chelsea Gubecka of Australia, and Katie Grimes of the USA have already qualified for the Paris Olympics with a 1-2-3 finish at the 2023 World Championships, Olympic champions Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil and Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands have not…yet. This is their last opportunity to do so – they cannot leave anything to chance during the race if they hope to qualify for their third consecutive Olympic Games. What is remarkable about these two competitors is that they are still among the expected podium finishers – and Ana Marcela competed in her first Olympic final in 2008 as a 16-year-old and Rouwendaal is still on top of her game at the age of 30.

Among the other competitors, there will be plenty of Olympians vying for the coveted spots including Xin Xin of China, Samantha Arévalo of Ecuador, Chelsea Gubecka, Paola Perez of Venezuela, Cecilia Biagioli of Argentina, Angelica Andre of Portugal, Li-Shan Chantal Liew of Singapore, and Spela Perse of Slovenia. In addition, Arianna Bridi of Italy was recently inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame and Caroline Laure Jouisse and Oceane Cassignol will be competing for the guaranteed French spot in the Olympic final.

Both races are expected to start off fast…and get faster as the race goes along. The finish – if previous Olympic qualification races are any guide – will be incredibly close among the top 25 competitors. Every whistle warning from the head referee, every turn around the buoys, every feeding station stop, every yellow card, every red card, every change of positioning in the lead and trailing packs will have an impact on the ultimate 19 Olympic finalists to be selected on Saturday.

American media creator Mike Lewis – who usually has a camera in hand – will instead have a microphone in his hand and will be calling the play-by-play for both the men’s and women’s races at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships.

Entrants for the women’s 10 km race tomorrow are as follows:

1. Ana Abad (Ecuador, 20)
2. Paulina Alanis Hernandez (Mexico, 19)
3. Angelica Andre (Portugal, 29)
4. Ruthseli Guadalupe Aponte Teran (Venezuela, 25)
5. Samantha Arévalo (Ecuador, 29)
6. Leonie Beck (Germany, 26)
7. Alena Benesova (Czech Republic, 25)
8. Cecelia Biagioli (Argentina, 39)
9. Klara Bosnjak (Croatia, 19)
10. Sezen Akanda Boz (Turkey, 16)
11. Maria Bramont-Arias (Peru, 24)
12. Arianna Bridi (Italy, 28)
13. Oceane Cassignol (France, 23)
14. Ashmitha Chandra (India, 18)
15. Pimpun Choopong (Thailand, 27)
16. Leah Phoebe Crisp (Great Britain, 22)
17. Ana Marcela Cunha (Brazil, 31)
18. Amica de Jager (South Africa, 24)
19. Maria de Valdes (Spain, 25)
20. Mariah Denigan (USA, 20)
21. Airi Ebina (Japan, 22)
22. Tuna Erdogan (Turkey, 16)
23. Bettina Fabian (Hungary, 9)
24. Eva Fabian (Israel, 30)
25. Katja Fain (Slovenia, 22)
26. Mariya Fedotova (Kazakhstan, 24)
27. Emma Finlin (Canada, 18)
28. Candela Giordanino (Argentina, 19)
29. Eden Girloanta (Israel, 23)
30. Maddy Gough (Australia, 24)
31. Katie Grimes (USA, 18)
32. Mariela Guadamuro (Puerto Rico, 17)
33. Isabella Hernandez (Dominican Republic, 19)
34. Moesha Johnson (Australia, 26)
35. Caroline Laure Jouisse (France, 29)
36. Viviane Jungblut (Brazil, 27)
37. Ichika Kajimoto (Japan, 19)
38. Amber Keegan (Great Britain, 26)
39. Kamonchanok Kwanmuang (Thailand, 18)
40. Pac Tung Nikita Lam (Hong Kong, 23)
41. Hae Rim Lee (South Korea, 27)
42. Li-Shan Chantal Liew (Singapore, 25)
43. Callan Lotter (South Africa, 17)
44. Georgia Makri (Greece, 17)
45. Yihan Mao (China, 14)
46. Angela Martinez Guillen (Spain, 19)
47. Ashley Yi Ting Ng (Singapore, 17)
48. Tsz Yin Nip (Hong Kong, 23)
49. Laila Oravsky (Canada, 16)
50. Jungju Park (South Korea, 25)
51. Lenka Pavlacka (Czech Republic, 29)
52. Paola Perez (Venezuela, 32)
53. Spela Perse (Slovenia, 27 – shown above)
54. Maria Porres (Guatamala, 20)
55. Fatima Portillo (El Salvador, 20)
56. Makalakshmi Porur Kalan Rajagopal Ravi (India, 17)
57. Lisa Pou (Mongolia, 24)
58. Alondra Itzel Guiles (Puerto Rico, 19)
59. Michell Ramirez (Honduras, 21)
60. Mafalda Rosa (Portugal, 20)
61. Martha Sandoval (Mexico, 25)
62. Rafaela Santo (Angola, 19)
63. Britta Schwengle (Aruba, 19)
64. Jeannette Spiwoks (Germany, 25)
65. Mira Szimcsak (Hungary, 19)
66. Ginevra Taddeucci (Italy, 26)
67. Diana Taszhanova (Kazakhstan, 20)
68. Yu-Wen Teng (Taipei, 27)
69. Sharon van Rouwendaal (Netherlands, 30)
70. Yanci Vanegas (Guatamala, 21)
71. Yi-Chen Wang (Taipei, 24)
72. Xin Xin (China, 27)

While Florian Wellbrock of Germany, Kristóf Rasovszsky of Hungary, and Oliver Klemet of Germany have already qualified for the Paris Olympics with a 1-2-3 finish at the 2023 World Championships, Olympic champion Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy and plenty of other Olympic swimmers will vie for the coveted spots including Matan Roditi (of Israel, Athanasios Kynigakis of Greece, Marc-Antoine Olivier of France, Hau-Li Fan of Canada, Taishin Minamide of Japan, Phillip Seidler of Namibia, William Yan Thorley of Hong Kong, Tiago Campos (of Portugal, Hector Pardoe of Great Britain, Daniel Delgadillo of Mexico, and David Farinango of Ecuador. Top echelon swimmers like Domenico Acerenza of Italy will undoubtably be in the mix for a podium position.

The French men could be competing in a domestic race within the international competition. Logan Fontaine and Marc-Antoine Olivier could – and should – both finish in the top pack to qualify for the Paris Olympics – which would be a sweet finish for French administrator Stéphane Lecat and the rest of the French Swimming Federation.

For more information, visit www.worldaquatics-doha2024.com. For the list of 79 starters in the men’s race, visit here.

© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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