Italian Swimmer Criticizes World Aquatics for Poor Organization of 2025 World Championships in Singapore

Olympic champion of Rio 2016 and eight-time world champion, Italian swimmer **Gregorio Paltrinieri**, criticized the organization of the 2025 World Championships. He pointed out that **World Aquatics** conducted activities similar to those seen at the 2024 Olympics concerning open water events.

The men’s and women’s races were postponed several times in Singapore due to poor water quality.

“The 10 km is a challenging race because there comes a moment when you start to question yourself and doubt. There are times when you feel invincible, and other times when you’re really struggling. It’s never easy to ‘break the ice’ in a 10 km race, especially under such extreme conditions — among the toughest I’ve ever encountered.

The organization from **World Aquatics** was perhaps one of the weakest we’ve seen in the last two decades. However, all the attention was focused on this race; I wanted to perform well, and I’m glad I was able to. There were numerous aspects that I believe were neglected. Just like on the Seine during the Paris Olympics, it was the same this time. But honestly, can you joke about the health of athletes?

Competing in extreme conditions is incredibly tough; it required all of my experience to cope with the chaos leading up to the event. We were all shocked by the organization. Last night, we went to bed uncertain if we would compete today.

I generally prefer warmth over cold, but it was too hot here. I believe we were swimming in water around 31°C, but there was a stretch where the water was stagnant and felt about 35°C. It was a very grueling race; in fact, while I was swimming, I missed the cold water we had at the European Championships in Starigrad just a month ago,” Paltrinieri shared with Tuttosport.