Kristof Rasovszky earned Olympic and world titles in a year where European men’s open water swimmers once again demonstrated their dominance of the event.
The 27-year-old Hungarian began his season by taking a second world gold over 10km, five years after his first win over 5km in Gwangju.
And while he missed out on a medal at the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade, Rasovszky returned to top form at the Paris 2024 Games, where he added 10km gold in the River Seine to the silver he had won three years earlier at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The overall results at the two global competitions of the year told their own story. At the World Championships, European male swimmers occupied the first nine places in the 5km race and the first four in the 10km event. At the Paris Olympics, they secured the top 10 places in the 10km.
Rasovszky finished in 1:50.52.7 at the Paris Games, with Germany’s Oliver Klemet claiming silver in 1:50.54.8 and bronze going to Hungary’s David Betlehem in 1:51.09.0.
Italy’s Domenico Acerenza missed out on a medal by 0.6sec, with France’s Logan Fontaine finishing fifth, Britain’s Hector Pardoe sixth and home athlete Marc-Antoine Olivier seventh.
At February’s World Aquatics Championships in Doha Rasovszky had been followed home in the 10km race by Olivier, with Pardoe taking bronze ahead of Fontaine.
Three days later Fontaine stood atop the podium after holding off the challenge of fellow-countryman Olivier, who finished 0.3sec behind him in the 5km race. Rasovszky’s hopes of a second medal in Doha were narrowly frustrated as Acerenza beat him to bronze by 0.5sec.
Italy took two out of the three men’s titles at the European Aquatics Championships.
Gregorio Paltrinieri won gold in the 10km race ahead of Olivier, who was closely followed home by David Betlehem of Hungary and – in fourth place with the same time – Acerenza.
The following day Betlehem won 5km gold, with Olivier collecting another silver and Italy’s Marcello Guidi beating France’s 19-year-old Sacha Velly to bronze.
Dario Verani added a second Italian gold in the 25km race, with silver going to compatriot Matteo Furlan and France’s Axel Reymond earning bronze.
And Italy earned further honours in the European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Cup as Andrea Filadelli claimed overall victory. He arrived at the fifth and final leg in Ražanac, Croatia top of the rankings, although he was almost knocked off the top by compatriot Ivan Giovannoni.
The latter began holding 12th place in the rankings, but a late charge in the finishing chute saw him win the race in 1:53.32.69, with Filadelli second, just 0.2sec behind in a photo-finish.
That was enough, however, to see Filadelli through to the series title, with Giovannini finishing second overall and Dutch swimmer Marcel Schouten third.
The overall men’s title in the 2024 World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup series went to France’s Olivier after a grand finale in Neom, Saudi Arabia that left European male athletes filling the top 11 places in the overall standings.
Third place in the Red Sea race was enough to secure the overall honours for Olivier as he finished one position behind fellow countryman and Velly in a men’s 10km race won by Germany’s Tokyo 2020 champion Florian Wellbrock.
Verani was second in the rankings, and Guidi third.
Velly had a stellar season in the junior ranks. In July he won the European junior 10km title in Vienna, and although he narrowly missed qualifying for his home Olympics – losing out to Antoine and Fontaine – he re-focused to claim the world 10km junior title in September, adding a second gold as part of the mixed relay team in Alghero, Italy.
The young Frenchman won the world 10km title by almost half a minute from Poland’s Piotr Wozniak, with bronze going to Vincenzo Caso of Italy.
Velly had become European junior champion in Vienna, racing in the River Danube and finishing 11 seconds clear of Wozniak, the defending champion, who claimed silver as he beat Germany’s Jonas Kusche by 0.23sec.