Bauwens qualified for the men's 400 m individual medley, by clearing a 4:19 barrier, and eclipsing a FINA B-cut of 4:18.24 from the European Championships in Debrecen, Hungary. He surged past Luxembourg's Raphaël Stacchiotti with a freestyle kick to top the second heat by 0.49 of a second, breaking his own Belgian record of 4:16.71. Bauwens failed to advance into the final, as he placed sixteenth overall on the first day of the preliminaries.