Spain has named the athletes who will compete in the artistic swimming events at the 2024 Olympic Games. This Spanish team includes six returning Tokyo Olympians—five on the main squad plus the reserve athlete—marking the highest number of returning Olympians among the teams set to compete in Paris.
The athletes selected to represent Spain this summer are as follows:
- Txell Ferré (17)
- Marina García (19)
- Lilou Lluis (17)
- Meritxell Mas (29)
- Alisa Ozhogina (23)
- Paula Ramírez (28)
- Iris Tió (21)
- Blanca Toledano (23)
- Reserve: Sara Saldaña (23)
Meritxell Mas, Alisa Ozhogina, Paula Ramírez, Iris Tió, and Blanca Toledano are all set to make their second Olympic Games appearance, while Tokyo Olympian Sara Saldaña was designated as the reserve. All six, along with Marina García, were also World Champions in 2023.
Competing on the senior international stage since 2013, team captain Meritxell Mas is the undisputed veteran and leader of this Spanish Olympic squad. Mas, who will turn 30 at the end of the year, has competed in all seven World Championships since she joined the team, and is eager to experience these Olympics with this specific group.
“We are really excited to go to Paris,” she said. “Because it’s really close to our country, and also for all of us who were in Tokyo, it’s a second opportunity to really live the Olympic Games with the people we love and who will cheer for us, because in Tokyo there was nobody. So, I know we are going to enjoy it a lot, and we are ready to fight until the end. We are working a lot to improve our routines, and we are excited to show our progress.”
In the technical team event in 2023, Mas led the squad to Spain’s first world team gold since 2009, and first-ever gold medal in an Olympic team event. All in all, she is a seven-time world medalist, a three-time European Champion — most recently winning gold in technical team in Belgrade 2024 — and a nine-time European medalist overall.
The other veteran on this team is Paula Ramírez, who has been around for nearly a decade and competed in every World Championships since 2015. She is a four-time world medalist, as well as a two-time European Champion and six-time European medalist.
Although no official reasons were given for her recent absence from the Belgrade European Championships, her selection for these Olympics indicate that all appears to be well.
Like in Tokyo, Iris Tió and Alisa Ozhogina will compete in both duet and team events. The pair, which has been swimming together since 2020, most recently won bronze in technical duet at the Doha World Championships.
“We are excited that this is our second Olympic Games doing a duet,” Tió said. “We feel that we have more experience now, we know each other a lot more and I think that we have grown as a duet.”
Iris Tió moved up quickly through the ranks as her talent was spotted early-on. She joined the senior team in 2018 when she was still only 15, and competed in solo at the European Championships that season, placing fourth. Since then, she has appeared in four World Championships (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024), winning a medal in each edition across the solo, duet or team events.
Alisa Ozhogina, who is slightly older than her duet partner, competed with the senior national team during the 2017 beginning and the start of 2018, before moving to Moscow, her birth city, halfway through that year to train at the renowned “Trud”. In the fall of 2019, she re-joined the Spanish national team, and has been a mainstay ever since, contributing to five world and European medals.
The pair is not only looking forward to their second Olympic appearance together, but to also showcase their choreographies, including a brand-new free duet.
“Our Michael Jackson technical routine has evolved a lot since Doha,” Ozhogina said. “We made the routine better and more difficult. We are so excited to go to the Olympics again as a duet, so we want to show all our effort and our work. Hopefully, people will enjoy our performance.”
“We have a new duet free about the Sagrada Familia of Barcelona,” Tió continued. “In this new scoring system, we have tried to keep our artistic impression very high and to show unique movements. It is our hope to remain artistic and to show these routines with our Spanish style, where we tried to bring creativity and to do something different from other duets.”
The fifth returning Olympian on this team is Blanca Toledano. On the national team since 2017, she has competed in five World Championships since and is a four-time world medalist. At the European level, she recently contributed to the back-to-back European titles in technical team, and is a six-time European medalist.
Marina García, Lilou Lluis and Txell Ferré will make their first Olympic appearance. All competed together in the junior team in 2022, but moved up to the senior squad at different times.
Marina García joined ahead of the 2023 season after winning five medals — including two golds — at the World Junior Championships, and six medals at the European Junior Championships — including four golds — in the solo and team events. The 19-year-old immediately became an integral part of the senior squad at the European and World Championships level, claiming three European titles and one World title in 2023 and 2024.
Born in 2006, Lilou Lluis and Txell Ferré are the youngest members of this Olympic roster. Both first competed internationally with the senior team this year, with Lluis winning silver in the technical team in Doha.
Much like García, Lluis was outstanding as a junior in 2022 and 2023 in the solo, duet, and team events, and her potential was quickly spotted by the senior national team staff. In 2023 and at only 16 years old, she also joined the senior national training squad in Barcelona, and got to attend all competitions alongside the team, including the Fukuoka World Championships.
Lluis, who will turn 18 later this month, will in a way get to compete “at home” this summer, as she has dual citizenship with France. She spent most of her club career in France with CN St Cyprien, before moving to Madrid’s training center and joining the club of A.D. Sincro Retiro ahead of the 2021 season.
“The Olympic Games have been my dream since I was a little girl,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to make it to the 2024 Olympics, in Paris no less! It’s really an incredible opportunity, and to also see that all my hard work has paid off, that it’s possible to make it to the Olympics at just 18 years old. I don’t think it has hit me yet, it still feels surreal and magical. Our hopes are to win a medal, so we are giving our all in training to achieve that goal. I know it’s going to be an incredible experience.”
Txell Ferré is the latest newcomer to this team, having joined the senior ranks only ahead of the 2024 season. She contributed to the acrobatic routine in Doha, and has since been part of the technical team routines for the last two outings in Paris and Belgrade. The 17-year-old was also part of the medal-winning junior national team in 2022 and 2023, and actually partnered with Lluis Valette in the duet last year.
All members of this team but Ramírez contributed to the back-to-back European titles for Spain in the technical team at the Belgrade European Championships.
Olympian Sara Saldaña was named the reserve, as confirmed by head coach Mayuko Fujiki. The 23-year-old has been on the senior national team since 2017 and has competed in four World Championships since, notably winning gold in 2023 and a silver in 2024. In Belgrade, she was also the reserve to the technical team routine.
Spain heads into the Olympic Games as the reigning two-time European Champions and vice-World Champion in the technical team event. However, the nation hasn’t competed in any other team events since Doha. Ozhogina and Tió did showcase their technical routine in two World Cup legs this season, and have been keeping their new free duet a surprise for Paris.
ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET
Cover photo: Deepbluemedia
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