Artistic Swimming Events gets underway at Paris 2024: New Rules Unveiled
Artistic Swimming--
The Artistic Swimming events at Paris 2024 kick off today at the Olympic Aquatics Centre, showcasing the sport's new rules for the first time at an Olympic Games.
Over the next three nights, ten teams will compete in the Team Free, Team Technical, and Team Acrobatic events, with medals awarded based on the combined score from all three events. This is a departure from the World Aquatics Championships, where medals are awarded separately for each event.
The People's Republic of China has been dominant in recent World Championships, winning five out of six gold medals in the team events, followed by Spain (one gold, one silver), Japan (two silvers, one bronze), the United States of America (one silver, three bronzes), Ukraine (one silver, one bronze), and Italy (one silver).
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Athletes from the Russian Olympic Committee won the Team event at Tokyo 2020, ahead of the People's Republic of China and Ukraine. In Tokyo, the Team event consisted of just two routines and was conducted under the sport's previous rules.
In Paris, the team competition consists of a single finals phase, with all ten teams of eight swimmers performing three routines over three nights. The final results and medal standings will be determined by the total points from all three team routines.
The Team Technical routine lasts two minutes and fifty seconds, consisting of five technical elements plus three additional hybrids. One of the hybrids must include a cadence action, and one acrobatic movement must be performed by all team members. These elements can be placed anywhere in the routine.
The Team Free routine is three minutes and thirty seconds long and includes seven free hybrids plus four free team acrobatic movements.
The Team Acrobatic routine, lasting three minutes, allows athletes and coaches to showcase their creativity, power, and strength in the water. The declared difficulty and difficulty score of this routine are solely based on acrobatics. Hybrids performed in this routine contribute to the artistic impression score.
Overall, acrobatics are divided into four groups: airborne, balance, combined, and platform. For the acrobatic routine, seven acrobatic movements are required, with at least one from each group. Teams can include any hybrids they wish, but without a declared difficulty, they do not count towards the difficulty score.
Under the new scoring system, routines are choreographed based on categories and assigned a degree of difficulty. Teams are rewarded for powerful and innovative routines. Greater emphasis is placed on technical precision; otherwise, a basemark may be applied if a declared degree of difficulty is not successfully executed.
This change has made the sport less subjective—higher risk yields higher reward. This will be further emphasized at Paris 2024, where medals will be awarded based on the total points from three routines rather than for each routine separately.
The shift towards objectivity under the new rules helps spectators better understand team performances and results, making the sport more exciting and less predictable. The increased reward for choosing higher difficulty in routines also adds a strategic element. Teams may choose to play it safe or take significant risks for extreme athleticism.
