Artistic Swimming

Artistic swimming was known as synchronized swimming until July 2017, when its international federation changed its name. It is one of only two Olympic sports or disciplines that are contested only by women (rhythmic gymnastics being the other). It is not considered a separate sport but rather a discipline of swimming, or technically aquatics, and as such is governed by World Aquatics. The organization was founded as the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) on 19 July 1908 in London, and was known as such until December 2022, when it changed to its current name. World Aquatics has 209 member national federations as of 2024.

Artistic swimming is a relatively new sport, with its origins dating to the beginning of the 20th century. Water show activities first received notice in the United States when Annette Kellerman (1886-1975), an Australian swimmer who toured the United States, performed her water acrobatics in a glass tank. Katherine Curtis was responsible for developing the sport in the United States, when she began to experiment around 1915 with water figures, and had the figures performed to musical accompaniment. Her students performed at the 1933-34 Chicago “Century of Progress” Fair, where the announcer, former Olympic swimming gold medalist Norman Ross, coined the term “synchronized swimming”.

American film star Esther Williams later popularized synchronized swimming when she performed water ballet in several American movies. The competitive aspect was developed about the same time, when Frank Havlicek, a student of Curtis, drew up a set of rules.

Artistic swimming was recognized as a separate discipline of swimming by FINA in 1952. World Championships in artistic swimming have been held since 1973, when FINA first established the World Aquatics Championships. Artistic swimmers compete at the World Championships in solo, duet, and team competition. Men were initially not allowed to compete at the international level, although they appeared in national events. Men recently started competing at the World Championships only in mixed duet events, but, since the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, they are also able to compete in solo events.

At the Olympics, artistic swimming was first held in 1984 with women’s solo and duet events, and these events were contested again in 1988 and 1992. However, both events were discontinued at Atlanta 1996, replaced by an 8-person team event. Since 2000, the Olympic Programme has consisted of a duet and team event.

Initially, the Olympic artistic swimming events were dominated by the United States and Canada, but, since 2000, almost all events have been won by Russian swimmers. Two Russians, Anastasiya Davydova and Nataliya Ishchenko, have each won five gold medals, only surpassed by Svetlana Romashina (ROC/RUS), with seven medals, all gold. In the overall medal count, Romashina is equaled by the Chinese artistic swimmer Huang Xuechen, but all her medals are silver and bronze.