Formerly known as synchronised swimming, artistic swimming will return for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
It always manages to power up the arena with its combination of water acrobatics and music thumping through the stands, making for a very different kind of thrill to watching the racing of other Olympic swimming events.
Performed in two different disciplines, this is what you need to know about artistic swimming at the Olympic Games.
History
While the Olympic Games have pivoted from calling it synchronised swimming to artistic swimming, before all of that, it was known as the water ballet.
The sport was competitive as early as the 1890s in Germany, but some records indicate that synchronised water acrobatics were also around in the days of the Roman Empire.
Throughout the 20th Century, the sport continued to gain popularity through sporting competitions and showcases in entertainment, including in Hollywood productions.
In 1984, at the Los Angeles Olympic Games, synchronised swimming made its debut. It wasn’t until 2017 that the sport changed its name to artistic swimming.
Since its inception as an Olympic sport, artistic swimming has been a female-only discipline. At Paris 2024, male athletes will be allowed to compete as part of the team event for the first time.
Rules
Artistic swimming is very much about timing and spectacle, but there are plenty of rules in place to limit elements that could come into play that would impede the inherent athleticism of the sport.
The primary rules of artistic swimming are:
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Not a single member of the team can touch the bottom of the pool at any time during the routine.
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Artistic swimmers can’t wear goggles.
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Costumes and accessories, such as jewellery or makeup, deemed inappropriate are not allowed.
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Routines can range in length, but they have to finish within the specified time given, or they’ll lose marks.
Scoring
For Paris 2024, artistic swimming teams have been given a set list of required elements that need to be performed during their time in the pool.
There are three types of elements: acrobatic, free hybrid, and technical. The number of each element that needs to be featured varies from routine to routine.
For example, in duet technical performances, there needs to be five technical, two free hybrid, and one acrobatic element. In the team acrobatic performances, all seven elements need to be acrobatic.
The elements panel judges on these factors. Before the performance, a coach card is given to the five judges, telling them which elements are on the way. On a scale of zero to ten in 0.25 increments, each element is graded.
Those five scores are listed from highest to lowest, the bottom and top scores are removed, and then the remaining three scores are averaged and multiplied by the predetermined degree of difficulty of the element.
Being able to spot when the elements are deployed and the skill at which they’re performed would certainly help anyone looking at the live betting for artistic swimming events.
As well as the element panel, there’s an artistic impression panel. Five judges score the performance on three categories: creative skill of the choreography and musicality; manner of the performance; and artistry of transitions.
Artistic impression panel scores work similarly to those from the elements panel. For each of the three categories, the highest and lowest scores are removed, and the remaining three are averaged together.
Finally, there are two groups of technical controllers. The first group of three make sure the elements performed match the coach card.
The second team of three watches for errors to assign 0.1, 0.5, or 3.0-point penalties for minor, obvious, and major errors, respectively.
The final score of an artistic swimming performance is the element score added to the artistic impression score, minus any penalties. These scores will determine the winners on the podium and in the sport betting.
Pool Size
In artistic swimming, a team or duet event will take place in a 30-metre by 20-metre pool area that’s at least three metres deep.
It’s that final measurement that’s most important for teams looking to do big lifts and avoid penalties.
Without being able to use the floor, the more space available to gain momentum, the better.
Disciplines and Events
There are two events under the artistic swimming banner at the 2024 Paris Games. The longest-running is the duet discipline, which sees two athletes perform a synchronised performance.
In place since 1996 – and now allowing for mixed groups – is the team event. Teams are made up of eight members and a maximum of two of them can be male.
Most Successful Countries at the Olympics
In both the duet and team events, Russia and the Russian Olympic Committee (which was banned from performing under the Russian flag) combine to be the dominant force in artistic swimming.
From the 2000 Sydney Games onward, Russia and its Olympic Committee team have won every gold medal in duet and team artistic swimming. For both, they top the medal tables with five total medals – all ten of which are gold.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Alamy*
