New rules, approved in late 2022, have led to new opportunities within the sport and Spain has certainly seized theirs in this new era for the discipline.

They will head into Paris 2024 with genuine podium potential after claiming four World Championship medals in Olympic disciplines over the last 12 months, with a historic team technical gold at Fukuoka 2023 an undoubted highlight.

From 3-5 May, they – and other leading nations – will have the chance to further refine their routines at the recently completed Olympic Aquatics Centre, with the French capital hosting the second leg of the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup.

“I think it’s a really good idea to try the Olympic pool and these ‘test events’ are really great for athletes to gain more experienced,” says Ozhogina.

“It’s a chance to become more confident by trying to perfect choreographies and getting feedback from the judges.

“It’s also really important for motivation because artistic swimming is a sport where you train more than you sleep, so we need the adrenaline and power that comes with competition.”

‘I Could Have Been a Dancer or Gymnast, but my Grandmother Had an Idea’

Alisa Ozhogina was born in Moscow, Russia, on 31 October 2000, but the following year her family emigrating to Spain and she was brought up in the southern city of Seville.

She was initially passionate about tennis and dancing, but heritage influenced her early out-of-school hobbies.

Her father, a musician who was part of an orchestra, guided Ozhogina towards the violin, but he was also keen for her to pursue swimming, while her mother loved rhythmic gymnastics.

“I tried lots of activities and enjoyed them all, but I really wanted to do ballet,” she recalls.

“We had lots of discussions before my grandmother, who was with us, said ‘stop arguing, because there is one (sport) for all’ and that was synchronised swimming.

'In Spain We Like to Innovate and Be a Little Crazy!'

The Spanish have a reputation for making bold and creative choices when it comes to creating new free routines and that was clearly evident at the 2023 European Games where they debuted their ‘baseball’ themed performance.

It was devised by Mayuko Fujiki, a winner of an Olympic bronze with Japan at Atlanta 1996, but who has subsequently gone on to coach her home nation (2004), Spain (2008) and China (2016) to two Olympic silver medals at each of those Games.

“We always try to do something really crazy and I think this is the character of our team,” says Ozhogina while laughing.

“We are not scared to try things and our coach Mayuko (Fujiki) says ‘do some crazy movements’ so we invented the choreography for baseball because of Tokyo 2020, but also because the World Championships (in 2023) were going to be in Japan.

“We like to do things that catches attention and although we didn’t know much about baseball we found the music of Tina Turner really helped us feel the routine.”

The Spanish team and duet are working on a new free routine ahead of Paris 2024, but Ozhogina is sworn to secrecy at this stage.

She was also under instruction not to discuss too many details about their recent headline grabbing music video appearance, but was happy to reveal some aspects to World Aquatics…

 A 'Secret' Performance with Dua Lipa in Bercelona

On 12 April Ozhogina and several of her international team-mates, together with Spanish divers and water polo players, appeared in the music video for Dua Lipa’s latest track ‘illusion’.

It was filmed in the iconic Piscina Municipal de Montjuïc venue, which fans of Olympic history may recall provided the stunning backdrop to the diving event at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics and more recently at the 2003 and 2013 editions of the World Aquatics Championships.

“It's a little secretive so we can’t say so much, but we enjoyed the experience so much and it was so great to perform with her,” Ozhogina tells World Aquatics.

“We all thought that we would appearing less than what we saw in the final video, which was amazing," Ozhogina added. “We are so happy that she chose aquatic sports, and I hope that in the future, other artists will choose more aquatic sports in their clips, too.”

Pressure to Perform at Paris 2024 

Winning major medals and performing with global stars has made it a somewhat ‘surreal, but special’ few years for the Spanish artistic swimming team, but Ozhogina is aware that the added attention brings increased pressure ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games.

“This (pressure) is what we felt a lot in Doha (2024 Worlds) after success in Fukuoka (2023 Worlds),” reveals Ozhogina, who is partnered in the duet events by Iris Tio Casas.

“The other trainers had iPads to film our training with music and were watching under the water to see we do our lifts.

“I try not to focus really on other people and just on myself so I can concentrate and perform.”

Aiming to Leave Her Own Legacy

As a child, Ozhogina would often be asked by friends if she would one day compete at an Olympics, but at the time she insisted she was just “enjoying the moment" and living “day-by-day.”

That changed when she watched the last summer Olympic Games to take place in Europe.

“At the time I didn’t like thinking about the future because things might never happen, but I remember sitting with my then duet partner at my club to watch London 2012,” she recalls.

“We saw how Andrea (Fuentes) and Ona (Carbonell) won the silver medal and I said to myself, ‘wow, I want to be there one day.’”

11 years later she would achieve that goal by competing at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, but now she has greater perspective and ambitions for Paris 2024.

“Competing in Tokyo was unique and an honour, but we are now much more confident people, more powerful and more experienced swimmers, so we have grown a lot,” she tells World Aquatics.

“I hope in we a will make the podium (in Paris) as it will help to motivate the little girls to do artistic swimming and also help this sport become a more popular in Spain.”