The women’s highly competitive 10 km world championship marathon swim will be held on Saturday, February 3rd in the Old Doha Port in Qatar.

It will be the first World Aquatics Championships held in the Middle East and will kick off the first week of the Championships with a slew of open water races (see schedule below). 2,600 athletes from 197 countries will compete in 75 medal events in six aquatic sports.

• Saturday, February 3rd is the women’s 10 km marathon swim and 2024 Paris Olympic qualification race
• Sunday, February 4th is the men’s 10 km marathon swim and 2024 Paris Olympic qualification race
• Wednesday, February 7th is the women’s and men’s 5 km open water swim
• Thursday, February 8th is the mixed 4x1500m relay

The 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.

The race is 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 2024 World Aquatics World Championship 10 km race – who include racers from all over the globe from Mongolia to Ecuador, from India to Brazil – 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)

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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