Defending champion Marchand joins elite European contingent as World Aquatics Swimming World Cup 2025 set to start in Carmel

France’s four-times Paris 2024 gold medallist Leon Marchand has announced that he will be part of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup 2025 three-stop series which starts in the United States tomorrow at Carmel, Indiana.

The 23-year-old US-based swimmer, who won nine World Cup victories last year en route to claiming the men’s overall title – and successfully defended his world 200m and 400m individual medley titles for a second time this summer – will be one of a hugely strong male European contingent in Carmel.

The field includes Olympic champions such as Britain’s Adam Peaty, Thomas Ceccon of Italy and Hubert Kos of Hungary as well as Switzerland’s Noe Ponti, who recorded two 50m butterfly world records in last year’s World Cup series before setting another three world records in winning three golds at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest.

Oher leading male European swimmers involved include world and Olympic 200m breaststroke bronze medallist Caspar Corbeau of The Netherlands and Matt Richards of Great Britain, the Paris 2024 200m freestyle silver medallist.

Leading European contenders in the women’s category include Marrit Steenbergen of The Netherlands, who retained her world 100m freestyle title in Singapore this year, European 100m butterfly champion Roos Vanotterdijk of Belgium, who secured world silver and bronze this year, and Poland’s Katarzyna Wasick, who has world 50m silver and bronze medals to her name.

Peaty, 30, missed winning a third Olympic 100m breaststroke title by 0.02 at the Paris 2024 Games, where he shared silver with Nic Fink of the United States behind Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi.

The opening section of the tour at Carmel will run from Friday to Sunday (October 10 to 12) and will be followed by meetings in Westmont, United States from October 17 to 19 and in Toronto from October 23 to 25.

Athletes will be racing for medals, overall titles and a share of the $1.2 million prize pool, with additional bonuses available for world records and event sweeps.

A total of 168 athletes from 43 countries are set to compete in Carmel.

Peaty, whose career has encompassed eight world titles and multiple world records, will race across the 2025 series, where he will be seeking a first World Cup title.

The event, launched by the world governing body in 1988, is traditionally held in short course (25m pool) format, with a switch to long course (50m pool) format in pre-Olympic years.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics

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