The second day of artistic swimming at the 2024 Paris Olympics focused on the free team event. This routine plays a key role in determining each team’s total score and their chances at winning medals.
Coming into today in provisional first place, the team of the People’s Republic of China continued to be absolutely magnificent, giving a masterclass of technicity, execution and artistry. The Chinese had only declared the sixth-highest Degree of Difficulty (DD) of the field, although still at 67.15, but their superb execution and mastery of every movement clearly proved the top of the rankings was theirs.
“To be honest, yesterday, I felt a little bit nervous because the DD of our rivals was really high,” head coach Zhang Xiaohuan said. “We were 4.1 behind the highest DD, but I trusted our athletes and our strategy. Yesterday in the technical team, we already saw that even though our DD was not the top one, our scores were really good, and all the judges were brave enough to give the correct scores for execution. I was happy because we did a good swim. And today, there’s a big gap, so I feel better.
I want to show a different attitude for our sport. I know that some of the countries are really fighting for the medals with the difficulty. But for me, I have calmed down with it. We don’t want to put the DD that high and show a routine with low quality. I still want my athletes to give an excellent performance, with a high level of execution, with artistic impression, and with a reasonable DD. I have faith because I know we are training so hard, we tried a lot of things, and we have built the strategy which fits the Chinese team best.”
Team China scored 398.8917 on their “Gravitation” free routine, and are very comfortably at the top of the cumulative rankings heading into tomorrow’s final event, with a running total of 712.4455 and a lead of nearly 70 points over the next best team.
“We insisted on starting on deck to offer a better artistic performance,” team captain Feng Yu explained. “Today, we started by creating the structure of the Eiffel Tower before entering the pool, specifically for these Games.”
After today’s free routine, the team of the United States leapfrogged Spain and Japan in the battle for medals behind China in the overall rankings. The Americans showcased a strong and clean swim on their “Water” routine, and currently have a total of 643.0255 to lie in the silver medal position.
Canada and Spain were the only two teams to declare above 70 in DD today. Canada had declared 72.65, while Spain went for 71.255, but only the Canadians managed a clean swim. Performing their “Boxing” routine, notably unveiling new costumes as well, they scored 343.6854 in this free routine, which moved them up to sixth place in the overall standings with a total of 606.1662.
Spain had held the second spot after the technical team event, but knew full-well it had to perform tonight to stay in medal contention, as Japan, the USA, Italy and France were all less than 10 points behind.
Unfortunately, the Spanish had a basemark on a missed acrobatic movement during their “Aladdin” routine, which dropped them to a temporary third place in the standings with a running total of 633.6119.
Japan also received a basemark on one of its acrobatics in its “Chess” free choreography, and currently sit in fourth with a total of 627.9308.
“The Chinese performance is high and the thoughts on the gold medal are with China,” Higa Moe said. “We are not going to reach their level, but I am going to do my best to still try and get a medal. Tomorrow, we want to improve the basemark and do a perfect performance, and all finish with smiling faces.”
France and Italy were the only nations to unveil new choreographies tonight.
France swam first and unveiled its long-awaited “Women” choreography, which was the fruit of a year-long collaboration with French artist Mourad Merzouki. Swimming to the song “Mesdames” by Grand Corps Malade, the French had everyone’s attention right from the start thanks to their enthralling deckwork and original, disconcerting headpieces.
The routine seemingly flew by, with every person in the pool was fully captivated by the intricate and meaningful choreography, as well the emotion emanating from the athletes, clearly pouring their hearts out in the pool. Much like yesterday, the atmosphere in the pool was electric and deafening, as the home crowd clearly enjoyed this powerful routine.
“It was full of emotions all at once,” team captain Ambre Esnault said. “We couldn’t wait to show this choreography for the first time. We felt that our masks had made an impact at the beginning, and that they had taken people’s breath away. The encouragement really gave us a boost. We received full credit for all our difficulties and got a good mark for our artistic work. That’s what we wanted. Yesterday, we also got our full DD, and we absolutely wanted to keep up the momentum today. It was a bit stressful because we’d never shown this choreography before, but it was clearly a hit, so that’s really good.”
“The aim was to bring emotion again into this new sport and to leave a mark by bringing something new to the table,” added head coach Julie Fabre. “I hope that in the future, this routine will be remembered, and that young synchro swimmers will keep it in their heads for inspiration and motivation to keep pushing.”
After tonight’s swim, France has moved up to fifth place in the standings with a total score of 617.8486.
Italy showcased a new routine set to the theme of “The Animals of the Jungle.” Unfortunately, the Italians had a basemark on one of their acrobatics, which placed them in eighth place in this free team event, and seventh overall with 603.9804.
After yesterday, Mexico is trying to dig itself out of a hole after receiving a costly basemark in the technical team. The Mexicans looked a lot less nervous today and had a very solid swim on their “Monarch Butterfly” routine tonight to receive the third-best score of this free event. In the overall standings, they are however sitting in eighth place with a total of 590.3365.
Australia and Egypt are currently in ninth and 10th, with totals of 516.4592 and 486.7547, respectively. Both nations had basemarks tonight, but the Egyptians suffered the most costly ones of all, with two falling on free hybrids.
Before coming to Paris, the Australians trained near Barcelona for over three weeks, and have been soaking up every moment of their European adventure and Olympic experience so far.
“It’s so unreal to be here,” Milena Waldmann said. “We’ve gotten really close over the last few weeks, living and training together in Spain before coming to Paris. It’s crazy to think, we started training full time two years ago with the dream of going to the Olympics some day, but it felt so far away. And now, it’s here. We are so proud to represent our country.”
The team competition will wrap up tomorrow with the acrobatic routine scheduled for 7:30 pm local, with the medals awarded shortly thereafter. Once again, the team medals are determined based on the cumulative score of the technical, free, and acrobatic routines.
ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET
Cover photo: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia
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