The second stop of the 2026 Open Water Swimming World Cup will get underway on April 24th, with a record 189 athletes due to take part.
With 25 National Federations represented, Ibiza will welcome the highest ever number of athletes at an Open Water World Cup event; a significant marker for the sport.
Swimmers will compete in three events across two days of racing, with the return of the 3km Knockout Sprint event for the first time in the 2026 open water season. The event, which debuted in Ibiza last year, saw German countrymates Lea Boy and Oliver Klemet becoming champions in the new sprint centric race.
Also amongst those competing across the weekend will be last year’s 10km victors, Angela Martinez Guillen and Andrea Filadelli.
Guillen won in home waters last year in spectacular fashion, and forms part of the 40-strong Spanish team competing in this weekend’s event, which also doubles as the Spanish National Championships.
Celine Rieder of Germany and Hungary’s Bettina Fabian rounded out the Women’s podium in 2025, while Filadelli led an all-Italian podium in the Men’s event, touching ahead of countrymates Dario Verani and Giuseppe Ilario.
The event marks the second of four stops of the 2026 Open Water circuit, in what will also be a second consecutive year hosting a World Cup event for the Spanish island.
The six individual medal winners from the first stop in Somabay will feature on the startline alongside a hugely competitive field, no doubt vying for another podium finish in 2026. Florian Wellbrock, David Betlehem, Domenico Acarenza line up in the Men’s event, while Moesha Johnson, Ginevra Taddeucci and Lea Boy will compete in the Women’s race.
Action gets underway with the Women’s distance race first, which kicks off at 9:00am local time on Friday. The Men’s 10km race will take place at midday the same day, before the joint medal ceremony at 14:30 that afternoon.
A similar format follows for the final day of racing on Saturday, with the start horn for the Women’s 3km Knockout Sprint race sounding at 9:00am sharp. The Men’s equivalent will begin at 11:00am, but the final awards ceremony at 12:30pm.
Water conditions in the Mediterranean Sea are expected to be cooler than those of Somabay, predicted to sit around 18 degrees Celsius. For details of where to watch the action live, click here.