With the great absence of Russia, artistic swimming defined the teams and the duets for the Olympic Games

At the World Water Sports Championship held from February 2 to 18 in Doha, Qatar, Artistic Swimming defined the 10 teams and 18 duets that will participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The competition will have the great absence of Russia, a country that dominated each of the previous editions.

In addition, the next Olympic Games could mark a milestone in sports, because for the first time men (maximum number of two) are able to be chosen to be part of the teams, which will consist of a total of eight athletes.

The 10 teams that will participate in the Olympic Games

Four countries qualified for Paris 2024 because they were the highest-placed National Olympic Committee (ON) in the event designated as their Continental Championship: Mexico (qualified in the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games), Australia (won the Fukuoka 2023 World Cup), China (won the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games) and Egypt (won the ticket in Doha 2024). The exception was Europe, because the ticket went directly to France because it is the organizing country.

Thus, in the Doha World Cup, the other five places remained to be defined and were left for the best teams that were not qualified for the Games: the United States, Spain, Japan, Italy and Canada.

These countries obtained the quota for the Olympic Games after the accumulated score in the technical, free and acrobatic routines. China dominated each of the specialties: Spain and Japan were second and third in technique, Japan and the United States completed the podium in freestyle and Ukraine and the United States did it in acrobatics.

The 18 duos that will participate in the Olympic Games

Each of the teams qualified for Paris 2024 were also guaranteed representation in the duo, so China, Mexico, France, Australia, Egypt, the United States, Spain, Japan, Italy and Canada will be present.

Two other duos qualified for the Continental Championships: Austria and New Zealand qualified for Europe and Oceania. Meanwhile, the places in America, Asia and Africa were reassigned because the United States and Japan, continental champions, obtained the ticket to the World Cup and no African duo performed in Doha, which was the event assigned by the continent to qualify for the Olympic Games.

These three available seats were left for the highest-placed duo in the World Cup and so Doha 2024 ended up delivering another six tickets for Paris 2024, which went to Great Britain, the Netherlands, Greece, Israel, Ukraine and the Republic of Korea.

Russia, the great absentee in Paris 2024

After participating as an exhibition sport in Helsinki 1952, artistic swimming was part of the 1984 Olympic program in Los Angeles with duo and solo women’s competitions. In Atlanta 1996 there were only team events and since Sydney 2000 the teams and duo races have been contested. Artistic swimming in Paris 2024 will take place from August 5 to 10 at the Aquatic Center, where diving and water polo will also take place.

The big absentee in the Olympic Games will be Russia, which will not be able to participate in any team event due to the sanction imposed by the invasion of Ukraine and will only be able to have an individual presence under the condition of neutrality.

Russian women are the great dominators of artistic swimming, to the point that they have won all the gold medals since Sydney. They have had great exponents such as Svetlana Romashina, who won her sixth title in Tokyo 2020 and surpassed her compatriots Anastasia Davydova and Natalia Ischenko. The absence of Russia opens the door to China and the Asian women have already demonstrated at the Doha World Cup that they will be the big favorites.