The first edition of the European Short Course Championships was held in Rostock, Germany, from December 13 to December 15, 1996. The event, just a couple of months after the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, replaced the European Sprint Swimming Championships, where only the 50 m events and the 100 m individual medley were at stake. From this edition on, also the events longer than that were contested.

Medal table

  *   Host nation (Germany)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany (GER)*	14	14	11	39
2	Great Britain (GBR)	4	4	2	10
3	Netherlands (NED)	4	2	2	8
4	Sweden (SWE)	3	3	3	9
5	Poland (POL)	3	2	1	6
6	Italy (ITA)	2	2	1	5
7	Czech Republic (CZE)	2	1	2	5
8	Norway (NOR)	1	1	2	4
9	Slovakia (SVK)	1	1	1	3
10	Austria (AUT)	1	1	0	2
11	Belarus (BLR)	1	0	2	3
12	Spain (ESP)	1	0	1	2
13	Ukraine (UKR)	1	0	0	1
14	Romania (ROM)	0	3	1	4
15	Croatia (CRO)	0	2	1	3
16	Switzerland (SUI)	0	1	3	4
17	Slovenia (SLO)	0	1	2	3
18	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	0	1	1
	Finland (FIN)	0	0	1	1
	France (FRA)	0	0	1	1
	Greece (GRE)	0	0	1	1
Totals (21 entries)		38	38	39	115

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 m freestyle	Mark Foster  Great Britain	22.25	René Gusperti  Italy	22.51	Dimitri Kalinovski  Belarus	22.57
100 m freestyle	Lars Conrad  Germany	48.90	Nicolae Butacu  Romania	49.49	Nicolae Ivan  Romania	49.56
200 m freestyle	Lars Conrad  Germany	1:45.97	Andrew Clayton  Great Britain	1:47.35	Konstantin Dubrovin  Germany	1:48.60
400 m freestyle	Emiliano Brembilla  Italy	3:45.52	Stefan Pohl  Germany	3:48.10	Dimitrios Manganas  Greece	3:48.29
1500 m freestyle	Igor Snitko  Ukraine	14:46.59	Ian Wilson  Great Britain	14:54.24	Thomas Lohfink  Germany	15:04.13
50 m backstroke	Mariusz Siembida  Poland	25.03	Tomislav Karlo  Croatia	25.14	Stev Theloke  Germany	25.15
100 m backstroke	Mariusz Siembida  Poland	53.56	Stev Theloke  Germany	53.87	Emanuele Merisi  Italy	54.39
200 m backstroke	Emanuele Merisi  Italy	1:54.91	Nicolae Butacu  Romania	1:56.29	Stev Theloke  Germany	1:56.51
50 m breaststroke	Patrik Isaksson  Sweden	27.76	Jens Kruppa  Germany	27.77	Daniel Málek  Czech Republic	27.84
100 m breaststroke	Jens Kruppa  Germany	1:00.15	Patrik Isaksson  Sweden	1:00.45	Aleksandr Gukov  Belarus	1:00.94
200 m breaststroke	Aleksandr Gukov  Belarus	2:09.86	Artur Paczynski  Poland	2:10.69	Jens Kruppa  Germany	2:10.70
50 m butterfly	Mark Foster  Great Britain	23.91	Fabian Hieronimus  Germany	24.07	Jonas Åkesson  Sweden	24.25
100 m butterfly	Thomas Rupprath  Germany	53.22	Fabian Hieronimus  Germany	53.70	Denislav Kaltchev  Bulgaria	54.02
200 m butterfly	Chris-Carol Bremer  Germany	1:57.04	Thomas Rupprath  Germany	1:57.30	David Abrard  France Adrian Andermatt   Switzerland	1:59.23
100 m individual medley	Marcel Wouda  Netherlands	54.62	Jens Kruppa  Germany	54.82	Christian Keller  Germany	55.45
200 m individual medley	Marcel Wouda  Netherlands	1:56.83	Christian Keller  Germany	1:58.52	Krešimir Čač  Croatia	2:01.45
400 m individual medley	Marcel Wouda  Netherlands	4:08.90	Christian Keller  Germany	4:13.03	Uwe Volk  Germany	4:15.69
4×50 m freestyle relay	Germany Lars Conrad Christian Tröger Tim Nolte Steffen Smöllich	1:29.54	Croatia Tomislav Karlo Miloš Milošević Miro Žeravica Alen Lončar	1:29.69	Norway Anders Dahl Vermund Vetnes Thomas Sopp Thomas Nore	1:30.40
4×50 m medley relay	Germany Stev Theloke Jens Kruppa Fabian Hieronimus Lars Conrad	1:38.28	Italy Emanuele Merisi Domenico Fioravanti Luca Belfiore René Gusperti	1:38.50	Great Britain Neil Willey Richard Maden Mark Foster Simon Handley	1:38.72

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 m freestyle	Sandra Völker  Germany	24.67 ER	Sue Rolph  Great Britain	25.32	Vibeke Johansen  Norway	25.38
100 m freestyle	Sandra Völker  Germany	53.04 ER	Sue Rolph  Great Britain	54.46	Martina Moravcová  Slovakia	54.95
200 m freestyle	Martina Moravcová  Slovakia	1:57.22	Antje Buschschulte  Germany	1:58.34	Carla Geurts  Netherlands	1:59.16
400 m freestyle	Kristýna Kyněrová  Czech Republic	4:09.94	Carla Geurts  Netherlands	4:10.36	Chantal Strasser   Switzerland	4:13.45
800 m freestyle	Carla Geurts  Netherlands	8:34.66	Flavia Rigamonti   Switzerland	8:39.20	Sarah Collings  Great Britain	8:42.42
50 m backstroke	Sandra Völker  Germany	27.94	Antje Buschschulte  Germany	28.55	Suze Valen  Netherlands	28.66
100 m backstroke	Antje Buschschulte  Germany	1:00.21	Kateřina Pivoňková  Czech Republic	1:01.69	Alenka Kejžar  Slovenia	1:01.93
200 m backstroke	Kateřina Pivoňková  Czech Republic	2:08.15	Antje Buschschulte  Germany	2:09.54	Alenka Kejžar  Slovenia	2:12.20
50 m breaststroke	Vera Lischka  Austria	31.36	Terrie Miller  Norway	31.47	Hanna Jaltner  Sweden	32.04
100 m breaststroke	Terrie Miller  Norway	1:07.91	Vera Lischka  Austria	1:08.18	Alicja Pęczak  Poland	1:08.33
200 m breaststroke	Alicja Pęczak  Poland	2:26.11	Alenka Kejžar  Slovenia	2:27.33	Anne Poleska  Germany	2:27.57
50 m butterfly	Johanna Sjöberg  Sweden	27.15 ER	Sandra Völker  Germany	27.23	Marja Pärssinen  Finland	27.69
100 m butterfly	Johanna Sjöberg  Sweden	58.80 ER	Sandra Völker  Germany	59.44	Julia Voitowitsch  Germany	1:00.51
200 m butterfly	Bárbara Franco  Spain	2:10.20	Johanna Sjöberg  Sweden	2:10.92	María Peláez  Spain	2:11.36
100 m individual medley	Sue Rolph  Great Britain	1:01.91	Martina Moravcová  Slovakia	1:01.98	Sabine Herbst  Germany	1:02.46
200 m individual medley	Sue Rolph  Great Britain	2:10.60	Alicja Pęczak  Poland	2:13.07	Sabine Herbst  Germany	2:13.29
400 m individual medley	Sabine Herbst  Germany	4:39.26	Beatrice Câșlaru  Romania	4:41.76	Pavla Chrástová  Czech Republic	4:42.07
4×50 m freestyle relay	Germany Katrin Meissner Marianne Hinners Silvia Stahl Sandra Völker	1:41.15	Sweden Johanna Sjöberg Linda Olofsson Nelly Jörgensen Malin Svahnström	1:42.18	Switzerland Dominique Diezi Andrea Quadri Sandrine Paquier Chantal Strasser	1:44.90
4×50 m medley relay	Germany Antje Buschschulte Sylvia Gerasch Julia Voitowitsch Sandra Völker	1:51.79 ER	Netherlands Suze Valen Madelon Baans Wilma van Hofwegen Angela Postma	1:52.80	Sweden Nelly Jörgensen Hanna Jaltner Johanna Sjöberg Linda Olofsson	1:53.06

References

• Results on GBRSports.com