2025 Overall Women’s Solo Artistic Swimming World Cup winner Klara Bleyer will be among the leading competitors to contest the second leg of the 2026 season when she takes to the water in Paris from 27-29 March.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself,” Klara Bleyer admits with a shake of her head, before pausing, looking up and firmly stating that this season will be different. “I'm trying to swim more with fun and believe in myself.”
While the 21-year-old has been honing her skills in the water since the age of five, it is only since 2023 that she has begun to realise and accept her true potential, in her own mind.
During that year she claimed her maiden European Junior titles, with victories in the Solo Free and Solo Tech disciplines, while she also secured European Games silver with the German team, as the sport made a successful return to the multi-sport programme in Poland.
Her thoughts soon turned to seeking sustained success as a senior, and that would arrive, perhaps sooner than she expected, via the Artistic Swimming World Cups in Paris and Budapest, where she would claim one gold and three silvers across four events.
They proved to be a springboard to further successes, with maiden solo continental honours following at the Belgrade 2024 European Championships, where she placed second twice.
“I have a cabinet at home with all of my medals and mascots as they are great memories,” she tells World Aquatics.
“Generally, I don’t look at there being a particular result which started this (run of success), but that Junior European Championships in 2023 made me realise, ‘okay, maybe I can do something in this sport’ and you know, maybe make it more popular in Germany.”
It is clear that Bleyer has pride in the individual honours achieved to date, but she has a bigger mission and one which comes potentially with a price.
“Our goal is to qualify for the Olympics, and we've been working really hard on this because we don't get a lot of good support in Germany and we have to pay for a lot ourselves, which means we need to fundraise for some events,” Bleyer reveals.
“What we have learned is that we need to swim at all of the World Cups and get into the minds of the judges. I think at the World Championships last year (Singapore 2025), I was not in their minds because they had not seen a lot of me in competition.
“Now we are really focusing on doing almost all of the World Cups and showing them, you know ‘we are here, we are Germany, and we want to qualify.’”
Bleyer combines training with work as part of her nation’s army, where she serves as a sports auditor, which she admits is “a lot to balance” but insists her love for the sport, as well as her passion for it, helps her through the tough times.
“I think I've learned, and my message to anyone in a similar position is to just do your best and try to enjoy this journey, because you can't do it forever,” she states.
“You’re only an athlete now, so try to enjoy every step and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”
That has been a key shift in mindset for the artistic swimmer in recent times, who admits that while the significant new rule changes introduced in 2023 have “dramatically improved” transparency and fairness in the sport, adapting to them has also created challenges.
“It’s very stressful because you have to adapt so fast each year,” Bleyer says.
“It’s good to keep changing rules so they can be fairer, but it is exhausting. You need to be very into the sport to understand everything, but at the same time, I’m excited to see where it goes.”
Germany has never placed on the podium in the sport at an Olympic Games, but after witnessing Great Britain and the Netherlands achieve historic firsts at Paris 2024, it has given her optimism about her own nation’s prospects.
“Having success at World Championships or European Championships is good, and I think it means more people see our sport in Germany, but I think the Olympics can push it to the public even more, and this would help our sport a lot,” she tells World Aquatics.
“Personally, I am always looking to improve and work towards new goals, and while sometimes I get anxious before competitions, this season and ahead of trying to qualify (for the Olympics), I’m taking a new approach to try and enjoy things more.
“In Paris, I’m going to be working on pushing my artistic impression more, and I’m excited to show what I’ve been working on.”
Bleyer will contest both of the solo events at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup in Paris, while she will also join Amelie Marianne Blumenthal Haz in the duet disciplines.
To find out how you can follow the action and results from 27-29 March in your region, click HERE.