What was in the news in January? From schedule and results updates to team roster news, we’ve got you covered in this new edition of Sync Up!

Schedule Updates

• The day-by-day schedule for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has been released. The artistic swimming competition will start with the team events from August 5-7, followed by the duets from August 9-10.
• The full schedule for the 2023 World Championships was also published. Artistic swimming will run from July 14-22 in Fukuoka.

News from Japan

• Two-time world silver medalists Sato Tomoka and Sato Yotaro from Japan worked with Stephan Miermont in California on their new free mixed duet routine.
• The federation has also already announced its team roster for the World Championships in Fukuoka, with an interesting change in the women’s duet, with Yasunaga Mashiro replacing Yoshida Megumu. You can read my full team analysis here:

Solos: Inui Yukiko (W), Sato Yotaro (M).
Duet: Higa Moe, Yasunaga Mashiro.
Mixed Duet: Sato Yotaro, Sato Tomoka.
Team: Fujii, Higa, Hirota, Kijima, Kobayashi, Sato T, Sato Y, Shimada, Suzuki, Yanagisawa, Yasunaga, Yoshida M, Wada.

Guess Who’s Back?

• Robert Prévost and Isabelle Rambling will return to competition at the first World Cup event in Canada. The Canadian pair last competed in the mixed duet event at the 2017 FINA World Championships.

 

Russia and Belarus at the Olympics?

• The IOC has begun discussions with stakeholders about whether and how to reintegrate Russian and Belarusian athletes back into international sports competitions with strict conditions and as “neutral” athletes. Because that’s clearly been a great idea before (/s).
• This statement was overall (predictably) not received well by the sports world. Ukraine already said its NOC will consider boycotting Paris if Russian athletes are allowed to compete. It is joined by the likes of Norway, Poland, Estonia and Latvia in opposition of Russia participating at Paris 2024.
• Meanwhile, the Olympic Council of Asia has invited Russia and Belarus to participate in the Asian Games in October in Hangzhou, China. It is not yet clear whether the event will serve as a continental Olympic qualifier for artistic swimming.

Updated International Results

Following the anti-doping violations from backdated tests from 2014 and the suspensions of three former Russian junior national team members (Anastasiya Bayandina, Daria Bayandina, Mariia Nemchinova), some international results from 2014 and 2022 have been changed.

2022 FINA World Series #1

• Since the competition fell during their suspension period, Anastasia and Daria Bayandina were ultimately disqualified from the first World Series leg of 2022, in which they competed for France. They had placed second in technical duet. Now, Japan’s Kawaguchi Airi and Kobayashi Uta get silver while the Netherlands’ Maria Lorenzini and Marloes Steenbeek the bronze.
• Similarly, the French team was disqualified in the technical team event. The nation had originally placed first. Canada now moves up to first, followed by Belarus (IFA) and Canada’s second team in third.

2014 FINA World Junior Championships

• The Bayandina twins were also disqualified from the duet event at the 2014 FINA World Junior Championships. They had won gold while representing Russia. Japan’s Omata Kano and Tasaki Asuka are now awarded the gold, followed by China’s Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi in silver, and Ukraine’s Oleksandra Ermakova (née Kashuba) and Anastasiya Savchuk in bronze. 
• As all three swam in the team routine, Russia was also disqualified from that event. Japan is now the 2014 World Junior Champion in team, followed by China in silver and Spain in bronze.

Mariia Nemchinova has been stripped of all results and medals dating back to July 2014, including medals also won at the 2015 European Games and 2016 FINA World Junior Championships. She also won silver in free combination at the 2014 FINA World Junior Championships.

Under World Anti-Doping Code rules, team medals are only stripped if at least three members of a team are individually sanctioned for violations during the period of that event. Consequently, only Nemchinova will lose her 2015 and 2016 medals as a result of the disqualification. As the Bayandina sisters did not swim in the free combination in 2014, Russia’s silver medal there still stands. Nemchinova retired in late 2016.

ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET

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