Artistic swimming returned to the Olympics with an entirely revamped format and scoring system, and yet still delivered the same captivating moments in the water.
The United States returned to the team competition with medal aspirations and saw them through to reality. Yet, for some, these Games didn’t quite live up to the historical potential they could have had.
Everything you need to know about artistic swimming at the 2024 Paris Olympics...
Medal table
| Nation | 🥇-🥈-🥉 | Total |
|---|---|---|
| China | 2 - 0 - 0 | 2 |
| United States | 0 - 1 - 0 | 1 |
| Great Britain | 0 - 1 - 0 | 1 |
| Netherlands | 0 - 0 - 1 | 1 |
| Spain | 0 - 0 - 1 | 1 |
Team USA returns with a bang
After a 16-year absence from the artistic swimming team competition, the U.S. finally secured qualification to Paris. That in itself would’ve represented success. However, the U.S. capitalized on a revamped format to emerge as silver medalists.
They ended the first phase of the competition in fourth place after a technical routine performed to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” then scored the second-highest mark in the free routine performing to their "I Am Water" theme, and finished up with another second-best score in the acrobatic routine (in that discipline’s Olympic debut) performing to a theme of “the sorceresses.”
"It means everything to us," U.S. team member Daniela Ramirez said. "All the work that we put into this for the past eight years, but especially these last four years, I think has been an amazing testament to what this silver medal means."
China sweeps the gold
At each of the previous five Olympics, no nation could touch Russia in either the duet or team disciplines. However, with Russia banned from Paris 2024 due to its invasion of Ukraine, China stepped up in its absence.
China took team gold by a wide margin, then followed it up with more gold thanks to the Wang twins in the duet competition.
It was China’s first two artistic swimming gold medals at the Olympics.
Wait continues for men
For the first time ever, men were permitted to compete in artistic swimming at the Olympics as part of the team competition.
Unfortunately, no men were selected to compete for any of the ten participating nations. That included 45-year-old artistic swimming legend Bill May, who narrowly missed out on selection to the U.S. team.
However, May did get his Olympic moment when he opened the team competition with the “coup de baton” ceremony, which he absolutely crushed.