47 Fun Facts About Artistic Swimming

Huang Xuechen won seven Olympic artistic swimming medals, level with the all-time record, without ever winning what?

A gold medal. She collected five silvers and two bronzes across four Olympics from 2008 to 2020, finishing behind the same unbeaten rivals in every final she swam.

Swimming's world governing body, now called World Aquatics, was known for more than a century by which acronym?

FINA. Delegates from eight nations, in London for the 1908 Olympics, formed it so that swimming would have one set of rules and an official list of world records.

Which sport made its Olympic debut alongside synchronised swimming in 1984?

Rhythmic gymnastics. The two arrived together in Los Angeles, and by Rio 2016 they were the only Olympic disciplines still closed to men, until artistic swimming opened its team event for Paris 2024.

From 1952 until its 1984 medal debut, synchronised swimming appeared at the Olympics only as what?

A demonstration event. American and Canadian swimmers first showed it off in Helsinki, and it took a campaign of some 30 years to turn those exhibitions into medals.

Kay Curtis, often called the mother of synchronised swimming, presented her 'Modern Mermaids' at which city's 1934 World's Fair?

Chicago. Curtis had started a water ballet club at the city's university in 1923, and her fair show gave the new pastime a big audience and a name that caught on.

Water ballet pioneer Annette Kellerman caused controversy in the early 1900s by wearing what?

One-piece swimsuit. Kellerman, who drew crowds to the New York Hippodrome performing in a glass tank, wore one at a time when women were expected to swim in dresses and pantaloons.

Which Hollywood star popularised synchronised swimming in films such as Bathing Beauty and Million Dollar Mermaid?

Esther Williams. A champion freestyler, she lost her shot at the 1940 Olympics when war cancelled the Games, so she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade water show, where MGM's scouts spotted her.

Which choreographer created the water ballet 'By a Waterfall' for the 1933 film Footlight Parade?

Busby Berkeley. His training came from drilling soldiers on the parade ground, and he arranged his swimmers the same way, in vast geometric patterns built for the camera instead of a theatre audience.

Synchronised swimming's first official international competition came in 1955 at which multi-sport event?

The Pan American Games. In Mexico City the United States swept the solo, duet and team titles, nearly three decades before the sport handed out its first Olympic medals.

In the sport's earliest days in the late 19th century, who competed?

US men were only allowed back alongside women in 1978, and UK men not until 2014.

The moves artistic swimmers perform to music before they dive in are known as what?

Deck work. It sets the mood once the music starts, but the clock is running, and a team that spends more than ten seconds over it is hit with a points penalty.

Under the scoring system used at Paris 2024, what must artistic swimming coaches submit before a routine?

A card declaring every element. Officials check each move against this coach card, and one that falls short of what was declared is cut to a base mark, which can sink a routine's score.

In artistic swimming, what is a 'hybrid'?

Leg movements with the head underwater. A hybrid strings together five or more of them on a single held breath, and each spin or twist added raises the difficulty the swimmers can claim.

In artistic swimming, acrobatic movements that propel a swimmer out of the water are also called what?

Lifts or highlights. Not all of them throw anyone: in a stack lift one swimmer rises standing on a teammate's shoulders while the others push from below, and the two stay in contact throughout.

In artistic swimming acrobatics, what is the swimmer who is sent into the air called?

The flyer. Teammates under the surface drive her upward, and because her moves in the air are closer to tumbling than swimming, she often needs a tumbler's skills as well as a swimmer's.

Which treading-water technique lets artistic swimmers hold height above the surface with their hands free?

The eggbeater kick. The legs circle one after the other in a rotary action, so there is no pause in the support and the upper body stays steady enough for arm choreography.

Which scull do artistic swimmers switch to when they are upside down with their legs raised above the water?

The support scull. The hands keep a continuous pressure on the water to hold the legs high, and because the head stays under the surface throughout, the swimmer does it all while holding her breath.

In artistic swimming's 'ballet leg' position, where does the raised leg point?

Straight up. It is among the first skills a newcomer learns, yet it never leaves the training programme: swimmers go on drilling ballet legs at every grade, right up to Olympic level.

Why do artistic swimmers wear noseclips in competition?

To keep water out when inverted. Swimmers spend long stretches spinning with their heads submerged, when water would rush up the nostrils, yet the rules merely allow a clip and never demand one.

What do artistic swimmers traditionally apply to keep their hair in place during a routine?

Gelatin. Dissolved in hot water and painted on, it sets hard as it cools, so it stays put through a whole swim and has to be melted out in a warm shower or peeled off afterwards.

Which piece of everyday swimming kit is banned for artistic swimmers during competition routines?

Goggles. They are barred from routines unless a doctor requires them, so swimmers who wear them every day in training have to perform without them when it counts.

How do artistic swimmers hear the music while they are submerged?

Underwater speakers. Loudspeakers above and below the surface play the same track, so swimmers can keep count and stay in time whether their heads are up or under.

What did judges give the hosts' free routine in the first Olympic artistic swimming team final?

A perfect score. The switch to a single team event at Atlanta 1996 cost the Americans' star, Becky Dyroen-Lancer, who had swept the solo and duet titles at nine straight major meets, her chance of more medals.

Why was synchronised swimmer Sylvie Fréchette at first denied 1992 Olympic solo gold?

Judge's typo. A Brazilian judge entered 8.7 instead of 9.7 and was too late to correct it, handing the title to an American rival; after an appeal Fréchette was given a gold of her own.

Who won both the solo and duet titles when synchronised swimming made its Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 1984?

Tracie Ruiz. She then retired and took up bodybuilding, only to come back for the next Games and take solo silver behind the Canadian she had beaten in Los Angeles.

Which Canadian won both solo and duet gold in synchronised swimming at Seoul 1988, the latter with Michelle Cameron?

Carolyn Waldo. Runner-up in the solo four years earlier, she turned the tables on the American who had beaten her, then swapped the pool for a television sports desk in Ottawa.

Swimmers from which country won every Olympic artistic swimming title at six straight Games from 2000 to 2020?

Russia. Its swimmers took all twelve golds on offer, the last two under the Russian Olympic Committee flag, and the run ended only when they were barred from Paris 2024.

Which country won both artistic swimming golds at Paris 2024, its first Olympic titles?

China. Its eight-strong team and the duet of Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi both won in Paris, at a Games missing the swimmers who had taken every Olympic title since 2000.

Who is artistic swimming's most decorated athlete, with 41 golds across the Olympics, World Championships and European Championships?

Svetlana Romashina. She never lost an Olympic final she swam, and when her long-time duet partner retired she won the Tokyo title with a new one before ending her Olympic career.

At Paris 2024, the US artistic swimming team went viral for performing which dance move upside down?

The moonwalk. It came in the opening routine, set to Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal, and the Americans went on to take silver, their first Olympic medal in the sport for twenty years.

After retiring, 1992 Olympic solo champion Sylvie Fréchette helped create the synchronised swimming scenes for which company's water show 'O'?

Cirque du Soleil. Fréchette designed and coached the swimming for 'O', which opened at the Bellagio in Las Vegas in 1998, and at first performed in the show herself.

Which two nations won their first ever Olympic artistic swimming medals in the Paris 2024 duet?

Great Britain and the Netherlands. Britain's Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe were only fourth after the first routine, then surged to silver, edging the Dutch pair by 0.14 points.

What happened when Olympic artistic swimming teams were first opened to men at Paris 2024?

No nation selected a man. Up to two were allowed in each squad of eight, but every one of the ten teams chose to field only women, so the men's first Olympic chance passed without a man in the pool.

Which routine joined the technical and free routines in the Olympic team event for the first time at Paris 2024?

An acrobatic routine. All of its difficulty comes from moves that launch swimmers out of the water, and its marks are added to the other two routines' to decide a single set of medals.

Who became the first man to win a World Championships gold in artistic swimming, in Kazan in 2015?

Bill May. Shut out of the Worlds and Olympics in his prime because both were for women only, he had been retired for a decade when mixed pairs were let in, and came back at 36 to win.

Who dived in to rescue American artistic swimmer Anita Álvarez when she fainted and sank at the 2022 World Championships?

Her coach. Andrea Fuentes hauled her to the surface in Budapest, just as she had done a year earlier when Álvarez passed out after a routine at an Olympic qualifier.

A deputy prime minister protested synchronised swimming's 2017 renaming and said his federation might do what?

Keep the old name. Vitaly Mutko, a former sports minister, asked 'What is the point?' and said it was his federation's right; the governing body replied that only the name was changing.

The scoring overhaul agreed in 2022 brought artistic swimming's judging closer to which two other sports?

Gymnastics and figure skating. As in those sports, every move now carries its own difficulty value and a separate mark for how well it is done, in place of one overall impression.

Which part of competitions for young artistic swimmers is performed alone, without music, in front of the judges?

Figures. Each swimmer performs set movements one at a time with no soundtrack to hide behind, and the marks are carried over and added to the free routine score.

Which injury, caused by kicks at close quarters, is a recognised hazard in artistic swimming?

Concussion. Teammates swim within inches of one another, and it is not unusual for one to kick another in the head, or land on her, in the middle of a routine.

What routine infraction draws a penalty under World Aquatics rules?

Swimmers must stay synchronised with each other and the music for routines of two to three minutes.

After being dropped in 1996, the Olympic synchronised swimming duet was restored at which Games?

Sydney 2000. The duet came back after a single Games away, but the solo, dropped at the same time, has never returned to the Olympics.

Which event made its senior World Championships debut in artistic swimming in 2023, with technical and free routines?

Men's solo. Until then men could enter the World Championships only alongside a female partner, so Fukuoka gave them the pool to themselves for the first time.

Why did Rio 2016 organisers replace a pool's green water before the synchronised swimming began?

Athletes must see underwater. Hydrogen peroxide added by mistake had cancelled out the chlorine and turned the pools green, and synchronised swimmers, like their judges, need a clear view below the surface.

Critics likened Swimming with Men, a 2018 comedy about a middle-aged men's synchronised swimming team, to which earlier British hit?

The Full Monty. Rob Brydon plays an accountant in a midlife crisis who joins the team, in a story based on real Swedish men who took up the sport and swam at a world championship.

Norman Ross, credited with coining 'synchronized swimming' at a 1934 show, was famous as what?

Olympic swimming champion. Ross, the show's announcer, had won three golds at the 1920 Antwerp Games and set a string of world records before reinventing himself as a radio host known as 'Uncle Normie'.

The first American synchronised swimming competition, held in May 1939, was a meet between two teams from what?

Colleges. Wright Junior College hosted a rival teachers' college, both with swim clubs started by Kay Curtis, and by the end of 1941 she had persuaded America's amateur athletics union to adopt the sport.