The Olympic silver medallists from the Paris 2024 Games will be swimming in the waters of Soma Bay, Egypt this weekend in the first World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup of 2025.
Fresh off Olympic silver in the Seine, Australia’s Moesha Johnson and Germany’s Oliver Klemet lead a deep field in the 10K for Friday’s race on the first leg of the 2025 World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup.
Klemet will have the target on his back in Egypt as he will do battle with training partner and 2020 Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock. The latter had a relatively disappointing showing in Paris, finishing eighth.
A new year brings a new Olympic quad, and even though the Los Angeles Games are still three and a half years away, 2025 offers an opportunity for a fresh-faced star to emerge.
Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe is one of those potential future stars. After a sixth place finish in Paris, the 23-year-old out of Loughborough University got a lot of fans of British Swimming excited for what could be to come for him, and he will showcase his speed this weekend against many of the world’s best.
France’s Sacha Velly, who was the World Junior champion last year, is another one of those rising stars at age 20. Now that his junior career is over, all eyes are on what he can do in senior waters. France has a very competitive domestic field in open water swimming, led by the duo of Logan Fontaine and Marc-Antoine Olivier, who were fifth and seventh in Paris and Velly could be the next one. If Velly can come out of this field on top, expect a lot of excitement for what’s to come for him.
Not to be counted out is Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri, who won Olympic silver in the 1500m freestyle and bronze in the 800m in Paris. He was ninth in the Seine, but Paltrinieri has built a resume as one of the best distance swimmers of all-time and at age 30, he is still at the top of his game.
Australia has a budding Open Water swimming national team led by the likes of Nicholas Sloman and Kyle Lee, who were 11th and 13th in Paris, and who teamed up to win the 4x1500m mixed relay at last year’s World Aquatics Championships. When the race gets close, those guys are always tough to race with and could factor into the medals in the waters of Soma Bay this weekend.
Moesha Johnson was also a member of that winning relay in Doha last year, along with Chelsea Gubecka, the silver medalist from the Fukuoka 2023 World Championships. The Australians have become one of the powers in open water swimming and will get to show that speed this weekend. Gubecka, who was 14th in Paris, has been one of the leaders of the national team at age 26.
Johnson is one of the favourites for this weekend’s women’s 10K after her near-perfect race strategy in Paris that saw her win the silver medal. Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci joined her on the podium as the bronze medallist and will be racing in this deep field.
The last time the open water international field raced at the World Cup Final in NEOM (KSA), Johnson came out on top with Taddeucci in third.
After dominating the sport for so long, Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha seems to be coming down to the end of her career as the now 32-year-old is coming off a fourth place finish in Paris. When all is said and done, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion has a resume to be considered the greatest of all-time, and fans will want to cherish any opportunity they have left to watch her compete.
With Cunha, there is the next generation, and Hungary’s Bettina Fabian could be a future star of the sport. Fabian had a good showing in Paris, finishing fifth. Now at age 20, her sights shift to Los Angeles 2028. Before we get there, we have the next World Championships in Singapore this summer, and before that, Fabian will be looking to gain some momentum for the future with a good showing here.
The “old guard” is still ever-present however, with the likes of 28-year-old Giulia Gabbrielleschi of Italy, who was sixth in Paris, and 30-year-old Caroline Jouisse of France, who was eighth at her home Games, on Friday’s start list for the 10K.
Germany’s Lea Boy, who was second at the last World Cup stop in December after not qualifying for the Paris Olympics, is also on the start list as well as pool star Isabel Gose, who was the bronze medalist in Paris in the 1500m freestyle.
Gose doesn’t have a lot of reps in open water swimming, but is one of the toughest racers in the world and comes from Bernd Berkhahn’s Magdeburg squad that included Olympic medalists Lukas Martens, the aforementioned Oliver Klemet and Moesha Johnson, and Olympic champion Sharon van Rouwendaal.
The men’s race will start at 10 a.m. local time on Friday, 21 February, with the women following at 1:30 p.m.
The Mixed 4x1500m Relay will start at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, 22 February.