The Artistic Swimming competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games got underway this evening with the first of three team routines that will decide the medallists for the Mixed Team event. The People’s Republic of China, who took a clean sweep of all three team events at Doha 2024, finished the night at the top of the leaderboard scoring 313.5538 in the Team Technical event. Spain finished second on 287.1475, and Italy third on 277.8304.

The Team Technical event is a two-minute and fifty-second routine that must contain five Technical Required Elements, three Free Hybrid Elements, and one Team Acrobatic Element. The three hybrids and one acrobatic can be placed anywhere in the routine. All ten nations in the Mixed Team event competed in tonight’s Team Technical, with the Team Free and Team Acrobatic taking place over the coming two nights to determine the Paris 2024 medallists.

THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA took the honours on the first day of competition, with their ‘Speed and Passion’ routine to the music of Wu Mingxuan leading the field in both Elements (211.9538) and Artistic Impression (101.6000) to top score with 313.5538. With the second highest Degree of Difficulty (DD), the team coached by Zhang Xiaohuan, He Xiaochu, and 1984 Olympian Ana Tarres, were flawless. China has seven Olympic medals in Artistic Swimming, but never a gold, and they will now take a 26.4063-point lead into the second day of competition.

SPAIN took on the most complicated routine of the evening with a 51.150 DD and did not disappoint, scoring a basemark-free 287.1475 to place second. Their ‘Pon Le Fuego Vamos!’ routine to Dance at the Gym: Mambo from West Side Story, was inspired by the team living and training together in Barcelona. The routine name is taken from an iconic line delivered by actress Ariana DeBose in the Steven Spielberg adaptation of the play, and it was vamos Spain on night one at the Olympic Aquatics Centre. Their routine, choreographed by Mayuko Fujiki, had the crowd making noise from the outset with an outstanding opening acrobatic element. Their highest DD element of the night, the first hybrid, also had the yellow and red flags out in full force.

ITALY, who won silver in the Team Technical event at Doha 2024, also went basemark-free with their 47.100 DD routine to finish third with 277.8304. It is the first major competition the Patrizia Giallombardo and Roberta Farinelli coached team had performed this particular choreography, and the ‘Disco Dance’ routine to Carneval by Dutch electro-house DJ Quintino had both Italians and non-Italians clapping along in the stands. Their spectacular final hybrid was the routine’s hardest element, with the team finishing strong to keep them well and truly in contention for a first-ever Olympic medal for Italy in Artistic Swimming.

FRANCE absolutely lit up the first night of competition scoring 277.792 with a 49.150 DD routine to place fourth. The crowd was deafening; a major change for the sport’s returning Olympians who performed crowd-free at Tokyo 2020. Their ‘A Trip to Space’ routine took the crowd on an intergalactic journey, taking off with a high-level acrobatic lift to Pink Floyd’s Astronomy Domine to represent launch off, mid-routine hybrid elements to Massive Attack’s Angel to represent weightlessness, and closing with two technical elements and a hybrid to Kelly Watch The Stars by French electro-space pop icons Air to represent landing. The routine was a tribute to French astronaut Thomas Pesquet who the team met in a lead up to the competition.

“We are very happy for our performance as it’s a very difficult routine. We are very happy to swim in front of our home crowd, and it’s a great start for us,” said France’s Laura Tremble.

CANADA was the highest-placed Pan-American team finishing the night in fifth with a score of 262.4808 from a 48.850 DD routine. Coached by former Ukrainian national team members Anna Voloshyna and Yelyzaveta Yakhno, Canada’s Team Technical opened with an impressive high and powerful acrobatic element, with their fairytale themed routine representing “people who reside in a forest that harness the power of nature and communicating with trees and birds”. The highlight of Canada’s routine was the fourth technical element that saw great height integrated into their theme of harnessing the energy of the sun and moon.

“There’s no words to really describe how we’re feeling right now. It’s just so incredible to walk out on stage and see all the fans and hear the cheering – it’s a dream that we’ve all had our whole lives,” said Canada’s Kenzie Priddell.

JAPAN (253.6617), UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (249.0067), and MEXICO (242.9491), all obtained a basemark in their routines resulting in a reduction to their listed degrees of difficulty. The result will be particularly frustrating for the Andrea Fuentes led Team USA who were second in standalone Artistic Impression scores (98.2500). Despite the basemark the United States routine had the Olympic Aquatics Centre crowd moving, with an already iconic inverted moonwalk to Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal a surety for the nightly highlight reels.

EGYPT (242.7651), and AUSTRALIA (235.9071), finished the night in ninth and tenth positions respectively, with both of the emerging nations in the sport getting through their routines without basemarks. Australia, performing to Volcano by Hans Zimmer from the Madagascar 2 soundtrack, started strongly with a lift and quick transition into the first free hybrid. Their interesting and unique choreography, integrated with their ‘Jungle’ theme, has been their ‘go-to’ routine for major competitions since 2022, although they have gradually increased the difficulty as the team gains more competency across the elements.

“We really wanted to come in here and not get any basemarks, and we’ve really been working hard together to push our difficulty. We’re really happy with that first Olympic swim together, and we’ll use that to keep pushing ourselves over the next two swims,” said Australia’s Kiera Gazzard.