The two artistic swimming events at the Olympic Games are the team and the duet.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded 96 places for artistic swimming for Los Angeles 2028. World Aquatics, the sport’s governing body, then regulates how each of these spot is allocated.

10 teams and 18 duets will participate in the 2028 Olympic Games. Nations qualified in both the team and duet events can enter a maximum of eight athletes. The duet athletes are included in this total of eight, and therefore also have to swim in the team routines.

Men are allowed to take part in the Olympics only in the team events.

Athletes will compete in the technical and free events in duet, and in the technical, free, and acrobatic events in team. The combined scores of all two, or three, routines will determine the medal winners.

Artistic swimmers must be at least 15 years old, or turn 15 in the year of the Olympics, to compete at the LA28 Olympic Games.

 

 

2028 Olympic Games Qualification Process

 

Team Qualification: 10

The team spots are allocated through a four-level priority system, which determines which competitions take precedence over others.

• Priority 1: 2027 Budapest World Championships (3)

The highest priority is the 2027 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest.

The top three teams at those championships, determined by the combined scores of their technical, free, and acrobatic routines, will qualify to LA 2028.

• Priority 2: Host Country (1)

Up to four teams can qualify through their respective 2027 continental championships. However, the number of teams may be reduced depending on which countries have qualified via Priority 1.

Any continent that already has a team qualified through Priority 1 will not receive an additional continental quota place. Moreover, because the United States qualifies automatically as host under Priority 2, the Americas are also excluded from receiving a continental quota through this pathway.

In other words, only continents that are not yet represented through Priorities 1 or 2 are eligible to qualify a team via continental championships.

The timing of competitions does not change this hierarchy. So even if a continental championship is held before the World Championships, its results will only be taken into account (if applicable) after the quota places from Budapest have been allocated.

As in the previous Olympic cycle, special provisions also apply to continents that will not hold a continental championship in 2027. In those cases, the quota place is awarded to the highest-placed NOC from that continent at the Budapest World Championships.

If a continent is not represented at all in Budapest, its quota place is reallocated through the final qualification pathway.

• Priority 4: 2028 World Cup Super Final (remaining team quota places)

The fourth and final priority for team qualification is the 2028 World Cup Super Final. Any remaining team quota places will be decided there, again based on combined scores from the technical, free, and acrobatic routines.

Realistically, this could mean around four available spots, but the exact number will depend entirely on what first happens in Budapest.

Once those places are awarded, the field of 10 Olympic teams is complete. That makes for 80 athletes out of 96.

Each qualified team is allowed one “Ap” non-competing, alternate athlete, who have different entitlements from competing athletes (“Aa”) and are not part of the athlete quota. The reserves will not, for example, receive a medal or be allowed to step into one routine to swim, except in case of a major injury, for example, and under conditions outlined in the IOC/LA28 Late Athlete Replacement Policy.