Giefing makes European debut as Austria’s next Auböck
Monday 10th August 2026 on 08:45 in
Austria
Austria’s Christian Giefing will make his long course European Championships debut in Paris this week, 16 months after 2024 European champion Felix Auböck unexpectedly retired, ORF reported.
The 18-year-old from Markt St. Martin in Burgenland has already shown his talent at junior level. He won European gold in the 200-metre freestyle last year and added bronze in the 400-metre event this year in Munich.
That medal came after Giefing narrowly missed the podium in the 200-metre freestyle and 200-metre individual medley, finishing fourth in both races by one and nine hundredths of a second respectively. “It was a nice feeling to take home a medal after all,” he said.
Giefing hopes to reach the 200-metre freestyle semi-finals on Thursday. The 400-metre race is scheduled for Sunday. He is also entered in the 50-metre butterfly on Monday, the 100-metre freestyle on Tuesday and the 200-metre individual medley on Saturday.
His form is being overseen by coach Balasz Fehervari at the BSFZ Südstadt training centre. “I trust him blindly,” Giefing said. Auböck also trained there under the Hungarian coach before winning European gold in Belgrade two years ago.
Giefing was still in a lower training group at the time and never trained directly with Auböck. “I would have liked to have had him as a training partner because he was really fast in training,” he said.
Comparisons are nevertheless being made between their training times. Giefing said the difference was that the 400 metres had been Auböck’s main event, while his own focus was the 200 metres.
Giefing’s time of 1:45.88 in this year’s junior European Championships was faster than Auböck’s time when he reached the World Championship final in Fukuoka in 2023. It leaves him 0.77 seconds short of Auböck’s Austrian record, set more than four years ago, and just 0.05 seconds outside the qualifying standard for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
However, a faster time in Paris would not directly affect Giefing’s Olympic prospects, as the general qualification period runs from March 1, 2027, to June 18, 2028.