The 27-year-old, who won the Solo Free title at World Aquatics Championships - Doha 2024 in February, claimed her first international Solo Technical gold at this level of competition since the Barcelona World Series event in 2021.

Simoneau achieved an outstanding combined score of 256.7950 for her new routine, in the opening event on Friday in Canada.

It saw her finish comfortably clear of China’s World bronze medallist Xu Huiyan (244.2050) and European champion Viktoria Reichova of Slovakia (203.2616).

“It was an absolutely phenomenal feeling to be able to swim this brand-new routine on home soil in front of my friends, family and loved ones and obviously the amazing Canadian crowd that we have here today,” Simoneau told World Aquatics.

“I have always wanted to swim to a French song, especially with the Olympics being in Paris this summer, I wanted to have at least one of the routines in the World Cup season to touch on upon France and that theme and culture and Solo was the way to go.”

Team Technical | China Leads with Gold, Canada Claims Silver, USA Completes the Podium

Later in the day, Simoneau returned to the pool as part of Canada’s Team Technical line-up, where they secured silver (269.6484) behind a youthful Chinese line-up (276.7867).

The USA, whose roster featured established quintet Anita Alvarez, Jaime Czarkowski, Megumi Field and Daniella Ramirez, but also a host of emerging talents, completed the podium places with a combined score of 262.7404.

“Our goal is not to peak in Markham,” stated Simoneau.

“It’s to really just to try out our routines to really solidify that we are a strong country technically and to slowly move up these stepping stones because we want to peak at the Olympic games this summer in Paris.”

Men's Solo Technical | Historic Achievement for Kim of Kazakhstan

Two other swimmers celebrating double medal successes on the opening day of the Markham World Cup were Eduard Kim of Kazakhstan and Italian Filippo Pelati.

Kim, the 2023 World Aquatic Championship bronze medallist in the Men’s Solo Technical event, attained a combined total of 204.3900 for his latest Tech routine, which was enough to claim the first World Cup Solo title of his career.

Pelati (198.1749) took silver, with popular American Kenneth Gaudet (180.3716) third.

Mixed Duet Technical | Spain Back on Top  

The Kazak swimmer Kim would later return for the Mixed Duet Technical final where he and partner Nargiza Bolatova swam to silver, having achieved 221.1683 for their routine.

Pelati and Sarah Maria Rizea, who won their first World Cup medal as a pair in Paris last month, added bronze to the silver secured in France.

Dennis Gonzalez Boneu marked his return from injury with an impressive display alongside Mireia Hernandez Luna which saw the Spanish duo claim gold.

“We’re happy as we made mistakes at the World Championships in Doha and we tried to improve and do it better, which we did,” Boneu told World Aquatics.

Hernandez Luna added, “We are very excited and happy with our performance.

“We’ll keep going this way as we have the European Championships in just over a week and that’s the next big goal.”

What's to During Day 2 in Markham

The second day of action in the final World Cup event before the Super Final in Budapest, Hungary, next month will see the artistic swimmers contest the Duet Technical, Solo Free (women’s and men’s) as well as the Team Free event.