Russians took bronze at the European Championships in swimming on their fingertips

The Russian women's swimming team snatched bronze at the European Aquatics Championships in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay — from the German team, which finished fourth, the Russians separated by a few hundredths of a second. The tournament in Paris continues, and the collection of awards for the team playing in a neutral status is replenished almost every day .

Race to the brink

The final of the 4×200 meter freestyle relay at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris turned into a real thriller for the Russian team, xrust admires. Ksenia Misharina, Sofya Dyakova, Daria Surushkina and Daria Klepikova showed a final time of 7 minutes 49.13 seconds — and throughout the entire distance the fight for the podium was carried out to the nearest fraction of a second.

The victory was celebrated by the British — Freya Colbert, Abbey Wood, Lee Schlosshan and Freya Anderson — with a result of 7:45.93. The second place was taken by the Hungarian team, 3.16 seconds behind the leaders. But for bronze, a real battle unfolded: the Russians were separated from fourth place, which was taken by the German team, by literally hundredths of a second. Klepikova swam the last leg of the relay, and it was her touching the finish wall that decided the fate of the medal — the Germans heard the final siren a moment later.

Emotions after the medal

The reaction of the athletes themselves was not the most festive — at least in the first minutes. Klepikova admitted to Match TV journalists that her first feeling was more disappointment than joy: the team was going for silver and fell just short of it, falling behind the Hungarians by the same few hundredths.

Teammate Sofia Dyakova reacted differently to the final result, calling Klepikova a real talisman of the team — without her finishing dash there might not have been bronze at all. Considering that the entire swim was decided in the last meters, it’s hard to argue with this.

Medal Marathon in Paris

class=»notranslate»>__GTAG7__For the Russian team, this bronze swim is far from the only achievement at the tournament. The European Aquatics Championships are taking place in Paris from July 31 to August 16, and Russian athletes, competing in neutral status without a flag or anthem, have already collected an impressive collection of awards: gold in Ilya Borodin's 400-meter medley, medals in diving and synchronized swimming. According to the results of the first week of the tournament, the team was consistently in the top five of the medal standings, although its results are not officially included in the table — these are the conditions for admission after being removed from international competitions.

The very fact that Russian swimmers ended up on the European platform at all is a remarkable event in itself. Since 2022, the national team has been effectively cut off from major international tournaments, and only recently have athletes begun to gradually return to the water in a neutral status — first at the World Championships in Singapore, now here in Paris.

Who is Klepikova

The heroine of the finish, 21-year-old swimmer from Voronezh Daria Klepikova, is not a new figure for domestic swimming. She started playing sports as a child — not for great goals, but to improve her health: the girl often suffered from bronchitis and sore throat. She quickly got involved, especially since her older brother led her into the pool.

Already in 2025, at the World Championships in Singapore, Klepikova became a real discovery of the tournament: the first Russian woman to make it to the final of the 100-meter freestyle, and eventually became the world champion as part of the relay team. She traditionally gives her main seconds precisely at team distances, pulling out heats where individually she could remain in the shadow of more eminent rivals. Paris bronze is from the same series: not the loudest medal of the tournament, but obtained at the cost of extreme concentration in the last meters of the pool.

Xrust Russians took bronze at the European Championships in swimming at their fingertips