The final day of artistic swimming at the World Championships in Singapore has come to a close. Spain secured its third gold medal of the competition in the free mixed duet event, while the People’s Republic of China earned its fourth in the acrobatic team, completing yet another clean sweep of the team events, just as it did in the Doha World Championships last year.
It was a day full of emotion, tension, joy, and just a little heartbreak, for an emotional conclusion to an unforgettable long week.
Free Mixed Duet Final
The final featured only 10 duets, and there were again no preliminaries for this event. Kazakhstan unfortunately withdrew at the last minute, which was disappointing, especially as the pair had planned to unveil a new routine.
The podium battle was incredibly close, with only 1.7980 points separating the gold from the bronze medalists.
Spain’s Iris Tio and Dennis Gonzalez continued their undefeated streak and claimed the gold medal. They performed to Led Zeppelin’s “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” and received a score of 323.8563. It was a stunning and memorable performance, a proper mixed duet that was gritty and emotional. This is only their first season competing together, and yet they have won every time they’ve taken the stage since debuting at the Soma Bay World Cup.
“We are very happy because we feel very proud,” Tio said. “With this choreography, we feel very good, we like it a lot – the music and the choreography – and we feel a really good connection. We understand each other very well. Dennis gives his all in the water, and that motivates me to give my all too. It’s been a very beautiful process.”
To stay ahead in this increasingly competitive event, they had significantly raised their difficulty since their last outing. Their Degree of Difficulty (DD) here was 43.35, only the sixth highest in the final, but their huge artistic impression score of 188.7500 carried them through once more. This is Spain’s first-ever world gold in the mixed duet, after bronze in 2023 and silver in 2024.
“In this competition, we came with more difficulty than before,” Gonzalez said. “But also, not too much because we wanted to show the artistic impression, it’s more important in this mixed duets event. This result today, I literally didn’t expect given the great competition and the very high level. But I knew we could perform at our best. I knew with Iris by my side, everything would be perfect.”
For Tio, this marked her final event and third gold medal of the championships. Even more remarkably, she is now the first artistic swimmer in history to become World Champion in all four disciplines: solo, duet, mixed duet, and team. In fact, she is the only swimmer to ever win a medal across all four on the world stage.
She leaves Singapore with three golds and three bronze medals, having stood on the podium in every event she entered. It is truly Iris’ world, and the rest of us are just living in it.
Aleksandr Maltsev and Olesya Platonova, competing as Neutral Athletes B, earned the silver medal with 323.4438, just 0.4125 behind the Spanish duet. The pair, competing internationally for the first time since the 2021 European Championships, performed to the iconic song “Maniac” from the movie Flashdance. This was Platonova’s first appearance at a World Championships, and she had to wait until the final day to compete. She made the most of the moment.
“We are full of emotions, extraordinary,” she said. “This is my first World Championships and today is the last competition day. I was waiting for this moment for so long. Of course, Aleksandr was first with the solos, then he performed the duet with Maya [Gurbanberdieva] and I was waiting for this day for the whole championship. Of course I was excited. A little bit sad about the result, I wanted to be first, but I’m eager to come back at the next ones to prove our leadership.”
Maltsev added this silver to the three golds he had already won earlier in the competition, bringing his total to four medals in Singapore and establishing himself as the most successful male artistic swimmer of these World Championships.
The bronze went to Great Britain’s Isabelle Thorpe and Ranjuo Tomblin, who earned their country’s first world medal in the mixed duet event with a score of 322.0583. They presented a powerful performance themed around “The conflict between light and darkness,” and had posted the highest DD of the day with 50.475. Italy had edged them in the technical mixed duet earlier in the week for the bronze, but today belonged to them.
“I feel really happy, especially after the technical duet, when we came in fourth,” Thorpe said. “We were a little disappointed with that, but we managed to turn it around and came away with a bronze, so we’re happy. The mixed duet is very different from the other events I swam in, but I got to express myself a lot more and I really enjoyed that.”
This was only their second appearance together in this event after debuting at the World Cup Super Final a few weeks ago, where they also won bronze. Thorpe, already an Olympic silver medalist and a multiple World medalist in the duet, brought her trademark sharpness and technique to the event. For Tomblin, already a 10-time European medalist, this was his first World medal and only his second World Championships appearance.
Acrobatic Team Final
For the final event in Singapore, the gold medal went to the two-time defending champions of the People’s Republic of China, who completed a sweep of the team events, just as they had done in 2024. They received a score of 229.0186 for their “The Soul of the Terracotta Army” routine, which they had unveiled only a few weeks ago at the Super Final.
Once again, their execution and synchronization were near flawless, and they received straight 10s in choreography and musicality in the artistic impression score. This was a commanding and confident performance, confirming their continued dominance in team events under the new system.
“I feel very happy that the results here have shown that we have yet another batch of young artistic swimmers to lead Team China,” head coach Zhang Xiaohuan said. “They’ve done superbly, although they still have a lot to work on. I have thought about many things that could crop up to affect us. To be honest, we were feeling very confident before we came, but from the moment [Zhang] Yayi hurt her leg, there was this cloud hanging over us. Her condition seemed to have improved by the time this event took place, which is why we fielded her in the end.”
Indeed, Olympic Champion Zhang Yayi returned to the lineup for this routine, having been sidelined from the free team event due to a minor leg injury. In her absence there, teammate Feng Yu had stepped in and helped secure the gold. But by the time the acrobatic team event arrived, Zhang was cleared to swim and played a key role in helping China earn its fourth gold medal of the championships.
“I also only knew shortly before the competition that I would be part of the team,” Zhang said. “I think I did fairly well today, the whole team did. We were able to execute all seven acrobatic moves well and deliver a clean routine. Over this period, I felt fully the trust I have from my team. This is a win that feels very meaningful. Everyone’s been so helpful and encouraging to me, we were there for each other all the way.”
The silver medal went to Neutral Athletes B, who delivered a significantly better swim than in the preliminaries to score 224.7291 for their “Rio Rita” routine.
After suffering a basemark and finishing seventh in the prelims, the young Russian squad still opted to increase its DD by 0.55, and thus had the highest DD of the final at 25.00. The risk paid off as they climbed dramatically in the standings, overtaking Italy, reigning European Champion, to land on the podium with their trademark, comforting Russian-style choreography.
“We are really happy with our performance today,” Elizaveta Smirnova said. “We improved, which was the most important thing, and we raised the difficulty of our routine too. We are happy with this result as we want an honest victory. China did very well as a team today and we are very happy for them that they took first place over us. This is just a sport after all.”
Spain earned the bronze medal with a score of 221.0962 for its routine set to Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra.” The team had placed second in the preliminary round and was only 1.5 points behind China, making today’s nearly five-point drop all the more difficult to understand.
Execution appeared to be the main issue, particularly on the second-to-last acrobatic element, which did come down a bit awkwardly. A few other small errors may have accumulated as well. Still, judging by the crowd’s reaction — finally showing up in numbers, better late than never — the routine was clearly a fan favorite.
“We enjoyed this routine a lot,” Lilou Lluis said. “It was the combined effort of working together that won us bronze. I’m pleased to have worked with my team. And yes, of course, I’m really proud of my achievements [in Singapore]. I’ve poured many hours into training, so it’s the result of my hard work. It has been really good… Incredible. We’re going to party tonight!”
All in all, Spain has made tremendous strides in this event after finishing fifth in Doha. This also marked a fifth medal at these championships for Dennis Gonzalez, capping off an extraordinary meet for both him and the Spanish delegation.
Mexico and France both improved from their preliminary swims, avoiding basemarks and moving up in the rankings to finish fifth and sixth, respectively.
The United States, bronze medalists in Doha, unfortunately had to count a basemark in the final and dropped in the rankings to ninth place. Ukraine, which won silver in Doha, had a well-executed and distinctive swim, full of their trademark acrobatic platforms, but had to settle for seventh.
Medal Table Wrap-Up and Final Thoughts
The People’s Republic of China finishes at the top of the medal table with four golds and three silvers, for a total of seven medals. Neutral Athletes B follow closely with three golds, three silvers, and two bronze medals, totaling eight.
Spain also leaves Singapore with three gold medals but finishes as the most decorated nation overall, with a total of nine medals: three golds, two silvers, and four bronzes. This marks the country’s best-ever medal tally at the World Championships.
While it matches their gold medal count from Fukuoka in 2023, this achievement somehow feels even more significant. Winning nine medals out of a possible 11 is nothing short of extraordinary. To be this consistent, versatile, and competitive across every event, in a field that has never been deeper under the new system, is a remarkable feat, especially only in the first season under a new coaching staff.
“It’s been a little overwhelming,” head coach Andrea Fuentes said. “The first gold was like jumping through the air, the second was like ‘No way!’ and the third was like, ‘Wait a minute, what’s going on?’ It’s starting to feel a little dizzying, honestly. But we’re very happy. I was not expecting the results of that magnitude so fast. I thought it was going to be later, but I was very lucky to have a very good team. I’m somewhere between incredulous, super excited, and proud of the team. These results give me a lot of energy to progress even further and contribute new things to the sport.”
But beyond the results of this Spanish team or its memorable routines, perhaps the real beauty lies in the swimmers’ smiles. Not the forced, fixed smiles long associated with this sport, but genuine ones. Smiles that come from athletes who love what they do, who deeply love their team, and who seem to love themselves too. What we’re seeing is a team that feels whole, joyful, and fully alive. Honestly, these athletes might just be becoming role models in something even more meaningful than medals: a model of what fulfillment in sports can look like.
“My goal is for them to grow as people and to know themselves deeply,” Fuentes said. “And this builds a team, a real team. The results come when you make the person and the team get to their full potential in an environment where they can be themselves. My job is to help them be in a better place, but first as people, not as athletes. Then, they’re going to do their best.
I try to make them enjoy the journey, because at the end of the day, if you have medals and it’s a negative experience, why are we doing this? Artistic swimming is hard enough. Coaches have the responsibility to build positive, athletes-centric environments before results. Of course, it’s a lot harder as a coach, because you need to be inventive every day. It’s much harder than just yelling and creating fear, because fear is much faster, but love goes much further.
I never tell them we’re going for gold. Never tell them we are going to win medals. I never talk about others, only what you can control. 1% better than yesterday, and that, you can control and do it in a way that you can finish proud of yourself, knowing that you’ve done your best.”
Today, I told them I don’t care if it’s gold, bronze, silver or 10th. What I want is that you finish and you can say, ‘I did my best’. And that you make people enjoy, that you inspire others. Otherwise, why do we do sports at this level? Not to only be in shape, no? Our job is to create this magic that inspires others.”
And with that, the World Championships in Singapore come to an end. Beyond the medals, historic results, and wonderful routines, what lingers is a shared vision, not just from Spain, but across many other nations. A quiet, collective effort to move the sport forward under the new system.
Not simply to chuck the same movements from the difficulty table or chase extreme DD, but to make artistic swimming more creative, more expressive, more true to its essence. For the first time in a long while, it feels as though the entire community is pulling in the same direction, and that brings a renewed sense of hope.
ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET
Cover photo: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia
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