Simona Quadarella & The First Quad In Euro 800 History

" I’ve won many European titles, but winning more is always motivating. And as I always say, winning is hard, but repeating a victory is even harder—yet, in my opinion, that’s what ultimately brings the most satisfaction." - the 2026 champion

by Craig Lord

published August 11, 2026

Simona Quadarella, fourth in the fastest 800m free battle in history at Singapore 2025, today claimed the European 800m freestyle crown for a record fourth time. A quad for Quadarella.

There were golds at Glasgow 2018, Budapest 2021, and Rome 2022, now the 27-year-old Roman, who races for CC Aniene at home, is the first to achieve the quad.

The time: 8:15.55, silver to Germany's knockout champion in Open Water, Isabel Gose, on 8:18.44, the two having battled side by side to halfway before the Italian pulled away. Maya Werner, Gose's training partner in Magdeburg's Bernd-Berkhahn-led performance centre, gave Germany a second bite of the podium cherry, with bronze in 8:22.55.

Brit Jazmin Carlin's 8:15.54 from 2014 lived to fight another day as the championship record - by 0.01sec.

Quadarella set the European record at 8:12.81 in that epic in Singapore last year:

Coached by Gianluca Belfiore, having previously risen to prominence under Christian Minotti, Quadarella, who recently earned a degree in Digital Communication, swam 16 laps at a steady 31.0–31.1 pace with a very high stroke rate, Her homecoming 50 was powerful and flowing - 30.35 to gold. After the race, she spoke via the Italian media service, saying:

"Gose started strong because she is stronger in the first half of the race, but I knew I had to be patient and really kick into gear during the second half; that’s exactly what happened, and I’m happy. I’ve won many European titles, but winning more is always motivating. And as I always say, winning is hard, but repeating a victory is even harder—yet, in my opinion, that’s what ultimately brings the most satisfaction. My family is here, and my niece is coming on Friday to watch the 1,500m, so I hope I can give her something special. It’s always wonderful having them here; it’s great to be able to share these exciting moments. Today was a great day for the whole team. We got off to a good start yesterday, and now we’re really hitting our stride."

Quadarella win marked her ninth gold medal at the long-course continental showcase: 400 x 2; 800 x 4; 1500m x 3 - so far. That moves her up to fifth place on the all-time list of multiple solo-event medal winners, adrift: Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström (15 golds); Hungarians László Cseh and Katinka Hosszú (14 and 13 golds respectively) and Ukraine’s Yana Klochkova (10 golds).