Chiara Pellacani won her fourth gold medal at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris on 4 August. She scored 358.05 points on the women’s 3m springboard, finishing 39.35 ahead of Britain’s Yasmin Harper, who took silver with 318.70. Nadezhda Trifonova earned bronze with 312.40.
Four events, four golds
Her gold run began on 31 July in the mixed team event. Pellacani and three teammates scored 410.60 points to win. Two days later she and Matteo Santoro won the mixed 3m synchro with 305.85 points, the only pair to break 300.
Later that same evening Pellacani held on to her 1m springboard title. She beat Michelle Heimberg of Switzerland by 40 points. The 3m win on 4 August made it four golds from four events, leaving no springboard title for anyone else.
A record Cagnotto never set
No Italian had ever won four golds at a single European Championships. Pellacani, 23 and from Rome, did what even Tania Cagnotto could not. Her three medals at the 2025 World Championships, including a mixed synchro world title, had shown she was ready.
Chiara Pellacani told reporters afterwards: “I don’t even know how to describe it, I just feel like I was so ready for this moment. The preparation, the training, it was all really great.” The defending 3m champion Heimberg had withdrawn early from the final, and no one could close the gap.
The Olympic pool in Saint-Denis held a different memory now. Two years after finishing fourth at the 2024 Games in the same water, Pellacani had made history. She left Paris as Europe’s best springboard diver.
