Artistic Swimming Event

Artistic swimming will be back in the Olympic Games for the 11^th time in Paris in 2024. This game represents huge progress in sports with various remarkable changes. Various new formats and rules are introduced in this game, this year. The aim of bringing new rules and formats is to enhance competition in it. The artistic swimming game is starting from 5^th August to 10^th August, at the aquatic center. In this event, a total of 96 athletes from 18 nations participated in two major events. One is a women’s duet and the other is a mixed team competition.

Historical Context

Artistic swimming also known as synchronized swimming back in 1984. Traditionally, this sport always refers to females but because of recent rules and changes, male contestants can also participate in this game. For the first time in history, male athletes are allowed to compete in the team event with the maximum permission of two male athletes. This change is the best example of the movement towards gender equality in sports. Although no male athlete qualified for the Paris Games.

Canada and USA were the dominant teams in the beginning but since 2000, Russia has won every gold in these games. This time Russia is not eligible to participate in the Paris Olympics 2024 because of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

There are two major events in artistic swimming at the Paris Olympics 2024:

Events

• Duet: it consists of two routines one is technical and the other is a free routine.
• Team: it is a combination of a technical routine, a free routine, and an acrobatic routine.

Participation

• 96 athletes from 18 nations will participate to compete in Paris 2024.
• 8 athletes from 10 qualified countries will selected with a maximum permission of 2 male athletes per team.
• 18 countries have qualified duets of 2 athletes each
• The youngest competitor will be a 16-year-old Higa Moe of Japan.
• On the other hand, the oldest contestant is 34-year-old Nuria Diosdado of Mexico.

Scoring

Judges will evaluate the routines based on various criteria, such as:

• Difficulty level: Firstly, judges notice the complexity of the movement in the game.
• Synchronization: In this process, judges will see harmony between the team members.
• Execution: This means how well the movements are performed in the contest.
• Artistic impression: This includes overall aesthetics and creativity of performances.
• Team event: In this event, the final ranking is decided by adding the scores of the other three routines.
• Duet event: Final ranking is decided with the addition of the scores of technical and free routines

Also Read: Paris Olympics 2024 is Embracing Sustainability With New Reforms

Various other remarkable changes and rules were made for artistic swimming to enhance this game:

Men can participate too

This will be the first time in history that men can also participate in artistic swimming to compete at the Paris Olympics 2024. A maximum of 2 men are allowed in the team of 8 members.

New Acrobatic Team Routine

There are three routines in this event

• Technical routine
• free routine
• acrobatic routine

this acrobatic routine is new in the 2024 Olympics. In this routine teams have to perform various sets of intense acrobatic movements, with at least one contestant from each main group. The team should perform a total number of 7 acrobatic movements. Final team rankings and scores will also be decided at the end by collecting scores from all three routines.

Medals for artistic swimming in the Paris Olympics 2024

There are 37 medals for the artistic swimming event.

• 18 medals are for men’s events
• 18 medals are for women’s events
• 1 medal is for the mixed events

The Future of Artistic Swimming

All the changes introduced for the Paris Olympics 2024 are for the betterment of the artistic swimming contest/game. The new acrobatic routine is also a game-changer reform in it. The participation of male athletes in this game helps to clear the visions of gender equality around the globe. This will encourage more people to get engaged and participate in these Olympics. So in summary, artistic swimming at the Paris Olympics 2024 will not only highlight the creativity of its competitors but also make a great history in sports with its innovations.

To summarize this whole thing, the artistic swimming competition at the Paris Olympics 2024 is going to start from 5^th August to 10^th August 2024. Therefore, it’s tough to say who will win because everyone is trying their best to win. So let’s keep our fingers crossed for your favourite players and enjoy the game.