China took gold in the artistic swimming team event on Wednesday night at the Paris Olympics, with the United States getting silver and Spain taking bronze.
The medal ended a 14-year drought for the US in the event, formerly known as synchronized swimming, with the team picking up their first medal since the 2004 Games in Athens.
China dominated in the absence of Russia, which had won every gold medal in artistic beginning with the 2000 Sydney Games. China finished with 996.1389 points, ahead of the Americans’ 914.3421 and Spain’s 900.7319.
It was a big medal for China, and also a step forward for the sport, which changed its name from synchronized swimming several years ago to update its image. Some swimmers still call it “synchro.”
“There is attention to the sport that has never happened before,” said Adam Andrasko, who heads USA Artistic Swimming. “This is an absolutely different sport.”
The smiles, the makeup and hair gelatin remain, but this is no longer the water ballet beneath flowery rubber caps that your grandparents watched. Wednesday’s acrobatic routines, after technical and free routines on Monday and Tuesday, put female athleticism on full display: power, endurance, and energy.
In the acrobatic routine, each team is required to include seven above-water elements. Seven times, a swimmer known as the ‘flier’ is launched two metres (six feet) above the water surface into flips, twists and dives.
She’s catapulted into the air from a base of swimmers below that are not allowed to touch the bottom of the pool.
Tricks, more muscular routines and more buzz now characterize the sport: like the viral Moonwalk routine – performed upside down with the swimmers heads under water – that the Americans performed on Tuesday in the free routine – a routine that scored them bronze at the world championships in 2023.
Rules and judging changes adopted about 18 months ago have turned this into gymnastics on water – with a dramatic edge like figure skating. The risks are also higher.
“People are pleasantly confused about how in the world these women can do what they do,” Andrasko said.
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The US did not score the only viral hit in Paris. Canada, who finished sixth, closed the event with an Eminem inspired routine.