The field for the artistic swimming competition at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris is now set and confirmed by World Aquatics.

In 167 days, artistic swimmers will dive into the pool of the newly-built Paris Olympic Aquatic Centre and start off their Olympic competition. Let’s go through what to expect this summer in the French capital.

 

The 2024 Olympic Games

This year marks the 40th anniversary of artistic swimming being introduced on the Olympic Games programme. The sport made its first appearance at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

• How many artistic swimmers will be in Paris?

The quota for artistic swimming at the Paris Olympic Games was cut down since the 2020 Games. Only 96 athletes will participate in this competition instead of 104 like in Tokyo and Rio. Since the sport has lost eight quota places, the number of duets was further reduced, going from 22 to 18.

Ultimately, 10 teams and 18 duets will compete in Paris. For the first time, men will be allowed to compete at the Games, only in the team routines.

Artistic swimmers must be 15 years old, or turn 15 in the Olympic year, to be eligible to participate in the Paris Games.

• How many medals will be awarded?

Unlike most major competitions like the World or European Championships, only two sets of medals are awarded at the Olympic Games: one in team, and one in duet.

The rankings in the team event will be determined by adding the scores of the Technical Team, Free Team, and Acrobatic Team routines. The latter will make its first appearance on the Olympic programme.

The rankings in the duet event will be determined by adding the scores of the Technical Duet and Free Duet routines.

• Are there no preliminary rounds?

At the Olympic Games, there are five days of competition, with only one event held per day. The schedule is slightly different this year than in past Olympics, with the competition starting with the team events held from August 5 to 7, followed by the duet events from August 9 to 10.

In the past, there was indeed one day for the free duet preliminaries. After the technical duet competition, the scores of these two routines were added together to determine the 12 finalists that would go on to swim in the free duet final. So, the duets were competing over three days, and the teams over two. This is no more. All 18 pairs will only swim twice, once in the technical duet and once in the free duet.

Indeed, in order to fit the acrobatic team event into the Olympic schedule, the day previously used for this preliminary round was reattributed to the team competition, which is now held over three days.

• How many athletes can a country enter at the Olympics?

The countries that qualified in both the team and duet competitions may enter a maximum of eight athletes in total. All 10 nations that have qualified in the team event must each automatically select two swimmers within those eight to form a duet. The countries only qualified in the duet event may enter a maximum of two swimmers.

Each qualified team is entitled to one alternate athlete. However, these alternates are considered non-competing athletes, and have different entitlements to competing athletes. They are not part of the 96 quota places attributed by the IOC. They can only become competing athletes after the entries deadline under specific conditions. So, this means often in cases where there are medical conditions or an injury preventing the participation of a competing athlete, proven Anti-Doping Rule Violation, or any other exceptional reasons.

This essentially signifies that all eight athletes named to their respective Olympic teams will have to swim all three team routines (or five routines total for the duet swimmers). Teams will have to maintain a fixed roster across all events, and cannot switch different athletes in and out of routines depending on the event, like we often see at other major international competitions.

Countries have until July 8 to finalize their squads and submit the names of the athletes who will compete in Paris.

Who is qualified?

 

• The field for the 2024 Olympic Games

The 18 countries that have qualified to the Paris Olympic Games are: Australia, Austria, Canada, Egypt, France, Great Britain, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Spain, Ukraine and the United States of America.

In the team event, seven countries return from the Tokyo Olympics, while three make their anticipated returns to the Games. Mexico hasn’t competed at the Olympics in team since 1996, France since 2000 and the USA since 2008.

In the duet event, 16 countries return from the previous Olympics, while New Zealand and the Republic of Korea are the only two newcomers for this Olympiad. New Zealand is set to return to the Games for the first time since 2008, and Korea since 2012.

The People’s Republic of China is the sole returning team medalist from the Tokyo Games. Unfortunately, Ukraine, reigning Olympic bronze medalist in team, has failed to qualify in this event. The country will still be represented in the duet, where it is also the reigning bronze medalist.

Japan continues its remarkable streak of being the only country to qualify to every single event in every Olympic Games since 1984.

• Where is Russia?

These Olympics will certainly be out-of-the ordinary as Russia, undisputed Olympic Champion since 2000, will not compete in Paris at all.

Russia (“ROC” in Tokyo), as well as Belarus, haven’t been allowed in international competitions since the beginning of 2022. Under the latest eligibility conditions set by World Aquatics and the IOC, both nations can only participate in individual events (i.e. solos) at World Aquatics artistic swimming competitions under the “Individual Neutral Athletes” banner. Clearly, this meant that they were unable to enter in the duet, team and mixed duet events at the Doha World Championships, which was the final Olympic qualifier. And as solos are not an Olympic event, the case was soon closed.

So, for the first time in 24 years, artistic swimming will have new Olympic champions in team and duet.

 

ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET

Cover photo: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia

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