Iris Tió won Spain's first gold medal of the European Aquatics Championships in artistic swimming, taking the technical solo title in Paris by edging out Belarus's Vasilina Khandoshka by 0.2 points.
The victory followed three silvers for Spain (team free, duo free and mixed duo free) and two bronzes (women's and men's solo free) earlier in the competition. Tió performed her routine to Rosalía's song "Mio Cristo piange diamanti" without a single mistake, finishing with 263.6250 points. Her coaches, Andrea Fuentes and Judit Requena, were unable to hold back tears as she completed the routine.
Tió swam fifth out of sixteen competitors and had to wait through much of the rest of the final while sitting in the leader's seat. She had already surpassed German swimmer Klara Bleyer, who opened the final and scored 258.0400 points. Bleyer had beaten Tió for silver in the solo free event, in which Tió took bronze.
Battle with the favorite
The last swimmer to compete was the reigning favorite, Khandoshka, who performed to music by Marilyn Manson. She made no errors, but Tió scored higher in four of the five required elements. Khandoshka outscored her only in the additional, optional element, where she attempted a higher degree of difficulty and gained significant ground. The decisive gap came in artistic impression, where Tió scored 114 points to Khandoshka's 109, a category built around the Spanish team's strength in conveying emotion.
The final margin between the two swimmers was 0.2 points. When Khandoshka's score appeared, Tió raised her arms, knowing the gold was already hers even though four swimmers had yet to compete. Greek swimmer Vasiliki Alexandri had been seen as a potential threat but finished fifth. The Spanish national anthem was played at the Centre Aquatique Olympique in Paris.
Seven routines
Tió's achievement is notable because she is competing in seven routines at these championships, something no swimmer had done before. That workload meant she could not dedicate all her preparation to the individual and duo events, and fatigue built up over the course of the competition. Speaking to LA RAZÓN before leaving for the championships, Andrea Fuentes said Tió had needed to do more physical training than her rivals to withstand the schedule, adding that Tió would swim every event if it were up to her, but that there was no need to push herself to the point of exhaustion.
Tió now features in four of Spain's six medals at the championships, including both duo medals and both individual medals. She rested during the team free event to conserve energy, but is set to compete in the technical team event later the same day.
