It’s been a few months since our last Sync Up, with some important competitions in between, so let’s catch up on some of the news you might have missed.

Road to Paris

Italy News

• ICYMI and are living under a rock, Giorgio Minisini has not been named to the Italian Olympic team squad. Yes, the team was already named. No, there was no national team trials.
• The nine athletes are: Linda Cerruti, Marta Iacoacci, Sofia Mastroianni, Susanna Pedotti, Enrica Piccoli, Lucrezia Ruggiero, Isotta Sportelli, Giulia Vernice and Francesca Zunino. The reserve has not been determined yet.

Ukraine News

• Ukraine has started training again, with the LA 2028 Olympics in mind, with half of its team members replaced. As for the duet, Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva are in Kiev practicing for the Paris Olympics. However, in Kharkiv, the duet of Daria Moshynska and Anastasiia Shmonina, who have competed together in duet as juniors, is also practicing. If the younger duet is better, there might be a possibility of taking it to the Paris Olympics.
• This is certainly something to keep an eye on as the pair Moshynska/ Shmonina won both duet events at the Ukrainian National Championship a few days ago, while the Aleksiiva twins finished second.
• Of note, Marta Fiedina is for now taking a break from artistic swimming.

 

Japan News

• Japan is set to compete in the upcoming Paris World Cup and plans to unveil two new routines: a “Pegasus” free duet and an “Alligator” acrobatic team.
• The athletes called up are: Yasunaga Mashiro (D/T), Higa Moe (D/T), Sato Tomoka (D/T), Yoshida Megumu (T), Kijima Moeka (T), Shimada Ayano (T), Wada Ami (T), Kobayashi Uta (T) and Fujii Moka (T).
• The reserve staying in Japan is Yanagisawa Akane, which is a bit surprising as she was a main flier for the acrobatics in Doha. That said, the team has been working with four different featured swimmers to spread the load.

Canada News

• Canada now has a head coach, but no more training center. Montreal’s Olympic Park, where the national team trains year-round, suffered a fire last month which caused more extensive damages than initially thought. The athletic sports complex (Institut National du Sport du Québec) will remain closed for a period of four to six months.
• The artistic swimming team, amongst the many squads displaced, has had to adapt and is now using the pool at the Cégep du Vieux Montréal.

Retirements

• Varvara Subbotina of Russia has announced her retirement. A two-time World Champion and three-time European Champion, Subbotina was a remarkable, once-in-a-blue-moon talent that we never got to fully see on the senior stage, with a career impacted by injury, COVID-19, and the competition ban.

“There was no incentive to overcome these feelings in yourself when you don’t want to go to training, and you yourself don’t understand whether it’s because of terrible fatigue, or because laziness speaks to you. I think it was both in me. I didn’t have enough strength. Not enough […] Leaving sports at 23 is too early, but apparently I’ve reached my limit,” she told Match TV.

• Maya Dorf of Israel has also retired. Dorf had been on the senior national team since 2018. She became European Champion in 2023, and is overall a three-time European medalist.

Calendar Updates

• Beijing will host the 2029 World Aquatics Championships.  As previously announced, Singapore and Budapest will host the 2025 and 2027 editions, respectively.
• The 2027 Pan American Games will now be held for the second time in Peru’s capital, Lima. Barranquilla, Colombia had originally be named as the host but was stripped of the rights to host at the beginning of the year after the city failed to meet its contractual obligations.

ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET

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