On 21 March 2008, at the 2008 European LC Championships held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Belmonte won the women's 200-metre individual medley breaking the European Championship record with the time of 2:11.16. She also reached 8th place in the 400-metre individual medley. The European Short Course Swimming Championships 2008 took place in Rijeka (Croatia), where she won the 400 m individual medley gold medal in a new world record time of 4:25:06. The record was previously held by the American swimmer Julia Smit, who set a time of 4:25.87 on 28 November 2008 in Toronto, Canada.