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Russia Moves to Top of All-Time European Aquatics Championships Medals

After 23 gold medals in Glasgow this month, 10 of which came from pool swimming, Russia has surpassed Germany to move to the top of the all-time medals rankings in the history of the European Aquatics Championships.

Russia entered the meet 2 golds behind the Germans, which was assured to not be enough due to Russia’s dominance in artistic swimming (or synchronized swimming, as it’s most familiar). Russia, who scored medals in all 5 disciplines contested at the event, led the medals tables this year in 3 of 4 disciplines: they had 10 golds in pool swimming, 5 in diving, and won 8 of 9 events in synchro (Ukraine won the other, in the combination routine).

Germany still has the most total medals with 434-leaving them with still a 75-medal margin over Russia. Russia had a +28 medal margin in 2018, meaning if that pace continues, it should take them through the 2024 event to catch Germany in total medals.

The combined haul of East Germany, West Germany and Germany still has by far the most gold and total medals, surpassing the combined tally of Russia and the Soviet Union; however, West Germany and East Germany existed in parallel from 1949 until 1990, allowing them to double-up on medal counts, while Russia stopped accruing official medal counts for a similar period during the era of the Soviet Union. East Germany dominated West Germany during the cold war period.

Because the European Championships go back to 1926, there is a period for both modern nations that predates the cold war as well, unlike the World Championships, for example.

The medals table win was Russia’s first since 2010, and 7th overall. That’s the second-most ever, behind only the East Germans who won 8-straight medals tables from 1970 through 1989.

We counted 17 nations that have yet to win a medal at the European Aquatics Championships: Albania, Andorra, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Georgia, Gibraltar, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, and San Marino. Liechtenstein almost got off the schneid when Julia Hassler finished 5th in the 1500 free.

Armenia did take their first crack at a medal table, via a bronze medal on the 10 meter synchro from Vladimir Harutyunyan and Lev Sargsyan. That puts the country into a tie with Turkey for 40th-place all-time in the medals table. The pair are just 20 and 21-years old, respectively.

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Russia ↑ 178 107 74 359
2  Germany↓ 160 154 120 434
3  East Germany 143 116 68 327
4  Hungary 112 95 71 278
5  Soviet Union 97 87 80 264
6  Italy 92 111 156 359
7  Great Britain ↑ 87 94 118 299
8  France↓ 85 86 80 251
9  Netherlands 77 92 82 251
10  Sweden 62 74 64 200
11  Ukraine 49 53 60 162
12  West Germany 41 33 49 123
13  Spain 30 49 49 128
14  Denmark 29 20 31 80
15  Poland 19 16 21 56
16  Austria 12 16 18 46
17  Finland 12 6 12 30
18  Romania 8 24 32 64
19  Norway 6 8 5 19
20  Belarus 5 8 15 28
21  Belgium 5 6 16 27
22  Greece 4 7 19 29
23  Ireland 4 6 1 11
24   Switzerland ↑ 4 5 16 25
25  Serbia↓ 4 1 0 5
26  Slovakia↓ 3 11 2 16
27  Czech Republic 3 1 15 19
28  Yugoslavia 2 14 13 29
29  Croatia 2 7 7 16
30  Slovenia 2 5 10 17
31  Lithuania ↑ 2 5 6 12
32  Czechoslovakia↓ 2 4 11 17
33  Bulgaria↓ 2 3 9 14
34  Israel 1 4 8 13
35  Faroe Islands 0 3 0 3
36  Iceland 0 2 1 3
37  Portugal 0 1 1 2
38  Estonia 0 1 0 1
 Serbia and Montenegro 0 1 0 1
40  Armenia ↑ (NEW) 0 0 1 1
 Turkey 0 0 1 1
Total 1272 1270 1273 3815

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Henri
6 years ago

You can’t add medals of Soviet Union and Russia together. There were 15 different parts in SU, now independemt countries

completelyconquered
6 years ago

Be prepared for them to invade another country next.

SumTing Wong
Reply to  completelyconquered
6 years ago

If you knew which country , you could prostrate yourself before them to impede their advance by a millisecond perhaps . Wait , they got a whole squadron & more to their Nth Syria formerly disused secretly prepared air base completely unobserved .How is that possible? As within the elections are they super smart or you guys super dumb?

Meanwhile Amarosa ….. Call the FBI …wait…..

completelyconquered
Reply to  SumTing Wong
6 years ago

Hi Gina, Space Force > Fancy Bears

Sprintdude9000
6 years ago

Shambolic (as COACH AWCY said, watch Icarus!).

Also, what positions did USSR, East Germany etc place on this table in 1990?

Coach Awcy
6 years ago

Doping. Watch ICARUS on Netflix….🤯

Scribble
Reply to  Coach Awcy
6 years ago

Better swimming through chemistry. In this photo, Morozov and Efimova have been popped for Performance Enhancing Drugs. Watch Icarus!

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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