Stamp - European Swimming Championships

When Paris Takes to the Water In the heart of summer, from July 31 to August 16, 2026, Paris and Saint-Denis will once again come alive with the excitement of water sports. Two years after the historic momentum of the 2024 Games, male and female athletes will gather in France to celebrate the centennial of the European Aquatics Championships. Launched in 1926 in Budapest with just nine men’s events, this biennial event has become the pinnacle of European swimming. For this 38th edition, some 1,000 athletes from fifty federations will compete in five major disciplines, combining technical and artistic feats. Competitive swimming, the premier discipline—led by its prodigy, four-time Olympic champion Léon Marchand—will electrify the Saint-Denis Aquatic Center, built for the Paris Games. In a 50-meter pool, athletes will compete in four strokes (backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle) with the stopwatch as their sole judge. This quest for speed will be matched by the demands of diving. A spectacular discipline where the precision of the movement is measured by the splashes upon entry into the water. The judges’ scores are final, just as in artistic swimming, where aquatic choreography and ecstatic smiles mask a demanding effort. Of course, the Seine will be part of the festivities. Open-water swimming specialists will brave the currents over distances ranging from 3 to 10 kilometers, while elite divers will leap from a dizzying 20-meter-high platform. The diversity of disciplines, athletic performances, and urban events evoke the exhilarating mix of the summer of 2024. 100,000 spectators will attend the competition. Whether enthusiasts or simply curious, they’ll get swept up in the excitement. Myriam Alizon

Timbre-poste (Héliogravure), mise en page et contour de feuille : Gwendoline Le Ray