Synchronised Swimming
History
When compared to other sports, synchronised swimming may be considered a baby. The sport was first included in the Olympics at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Synchronised swimming has another peculiarity that it carries since its beginning: its artistic characteristic. Indeed, the sport emerged between the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, and it known as water ballet.
At the beginning, performances were put on by men, but soon women started taking over. Records say that the first underwater ballet performance took place in 1907 in New York. That year, Annette Kellerman from Australia performed at the New York Hippodrome in a glass tank.
However, synchronised swimming did not become what it has become today easily. Despite performing in some swimming competitions throughout the years, it was only at the Chicago World Fair in 1934, that the term 'synchronised swimming' was used for the first time. From then on, the sport started taking shape and athletes began to improve their technique and physical prowess.
After the first official competition in 1940, synchronised swimming wasted no time and soon started to try and be included as an Olympic sport. The road was not easy. Between 1952 and 1968, it took part as a demonstration sport. Their first big achievement was being included in the 1955 Pan American Games in Mexico. Some years later, in 1973, under the helm of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), the first World Championship was held. With the globalisation of synchronised swimming, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) added it to its official programme in 1982. Therefore, the sport had its Olympic debut in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
The events
Synchronised swimming has two events at the Olympics:
- Duet
- Team: a minimum of four and a maximum of eight athletes.
Athletes perform two routines:
- Technical routine: 2:20 for duets and 2:50 for teams. Athletes need to perform compulsory moves, established by the judges.
- Free routine: 3:30 for duets and 4 minutes for teams. Athletes perform moves and combinations chosen by the team.
Curiosities
Sylvie Fréchette from Canada lost the gold medal at the 1992 Games in Barcelona because of a slip-up by a Brazilian. Ana Maria da Silveira was one of the judges and made a mistake when entering the score for the beautiful performance put on by the Canadian athlete. She intended on giving her a score of 9.7, but typed in 8.7.
Ana Maria herself noticed and admitted the mistake, after Sylvie protested, but there was no way around it. The gold ended up being scooped by Kristen Babb-Sprague from the USA, who as way of acknowledging her opponent’s great performance, put her on the top of the podium. The injustice was undone three years later in 1995, when the IOC gave the Canadian swimmer the gold medal.
Russian supremacy
In the seven editions of the Olympics in which synchronised swimming has taken part, Russia has proven to be a dominant force, in the duet as well as the team events, finishing on the podium in the last four edition of the Games. The Russians scooped up all the gold medals up for grabs at the Games in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012).
One of the people responsible for this success is Anastasia Davydova. At the age of 30, the athlete is the biggest synchronised swimming winner. In the Athens Games in 2004 and Beijing 2008, Davydova won the duet events, as well as the team events for Russia, bringing home four gold medals. In London 2012, she was there again, only this time only taking part in the team events. She did not leave empty handed though, taking home a fifth gold medal, a record for a Russian athlete.
Between 2001 and 2009, Davydona won the world title 12 times. However, after the last edition of the Games, the Russian athlete announced that she was retiring and has become a coach.
