Sara Curtis rewrites the history of swimming: she wins the European gold in the 50m backstroke with 26″56, a new world record (beating the result she set herself last time in the semi-final)
Sara Curtis, after swimming, seems to have found another job (perhaps, in this case, more of a hobby). It’s about collecting. Yes, apparently he is only capable of collecting gold medals and world records over and over again. Today 13 August, in the pool of the Olympic Aquatics Center in Paris, he played the final of the women’s 50 backstroke in 26″56an unthinkable time that is worth not only the record of the 2026 European Water Sports Championships, but also the absolute world record (which she herself had set in the semi-final). In short, an unprecedented domination that earned her the gold medal and entry into the Olympus of swimming.
France’s Mary-Ambre Moluh took silver by exactly half a second. An abyss which, in a race of this length, is truly remarkable. Bronze, finally, to the British Lauren Cox, stopping at 27″15.
A historic result for Sara Curtis and Italy
In the women’s 50m backstroke at the European Championships, no Italian swimmer had ever reached the top step. Three had tried, without ever managing to get to the end: Alessandra Cappa with bronze in Madrid 2004, Arianna Barbieri with silver in 2012, Silvia Scalia with silver in the Rome 2022 edition. Curtis is the fourth Italian on the podium, but above all the first to win (and what a victory). The Italian swimming prodigy turns twenty on August 20th, and seems truly destined to rewrite the history of this sport, dyeing it ever more blue.
“For the first time in my life my heart didn’t beat before a race,” he told Sky Sport. «I wanted to do the finish better because yesterday I wasn’t very successful. I said to myself: I want to try again, if it goes well, otherwise I want the title. It happened, I got the gold and also lowered the world record.”
With this gold, the tenth of the Italian expedition, Italy has reached quota 32 medals overall at the European Championships of Paris, returning at least temporarily to the top of the medal table ahead of Great Britain.
