Artistic Swimming 2024 Paris Olympic Preview

Women’s Duet

Russia has dominated this event, winning every edition since the turn of the millennium but will not compete in Tokyo. At the 2022 and 2024 World Championships, the winners of both the technical and freestyle events were Wang/Wang (China). In 2023, they only came second in the free and fourth in the technical. Alexandri/Alexandri (Austria) won the gold in free adding to their 2022 World Series and a 2022 World Championship bronze. They also won the 2022 European Silver and the European Games in 2023. Higa/Sato (Japan) is a new pairing this season and won the freestyle event in the World Cup in Markham. Higa took gold in the free and bronze in the technical at the 2023 World Championships, totalling the overall highest total score but that was a different, arguably stronger looking partnership. In 2024, the team that would have finished second in a combined event was Shortman/Thorpe (Great Britain), winning bronze in the free and silver in the technical. De Brouwer/De Brouwer (Netherlands) won silver in free and came fourth in the technical. Previously one of the twins has also won medals when teaming with Steenbank. The other medalists at the 2024 World Championship were Ozhogina/Tio (Spain), who won bronze in the technical, a strength of theirs, having also won at the 2023 World Cup Final. Diosdado/Jimenez (Mexico) were the Pan-American Games winners in 2023 and also won a World Cup free event in Cairo in 2023. Bayandina/Planeix (France) came second in the tech event in Cairo and the World Cup Final. Cerutti/Ruggiero (Italy) won a World Cup free event in 2023, before finishing second in the 2023 World Championship tech event. Lamothe/Simoneau (Canada) came together as a team this season and have been quite consistent in World Cup events and won at the World Cup Final in the freestyle discipline. Czarkowski/Field (United States) and Malkogeorgou/Platanioti (Greece) are consistent types but don’t tend to challenge for top honours.

China probably has the highest upside, especially when it comes to the technical routine. They would expect an edge here, although Austria has shown an ability to put up those big numbers. Japan have slightly dropped in my rankings with the new pairing. Britain, Canada, Spain and Netherlands are perhaps the tier below in the technical but all have been consistent. Austria has been very consistent in the free routine whereas China, Japan, Netherlands and Great Britain seem to be more inconsistent. Spain will need a higher score than typical to really make their mark in the free. I think China can win gold, but I imagine it is really tight with Austria. Behind them, I think the Dutch upside will take bronze ahead of Canada and Great Britain.

🥇Wang Liuyi/Wang Qiang 🇨🇳

🥈Anna-Maria Alexandri/Eirini-Marina Alexandri 🇦🇹

🥉Bregje de Brouwer/Noortje de Brouwer 🇳🇱

Women’s Team

Every edition of this event has been won by Russia, having only debuted in Sydney, but there will be a new champion in Paris. Perennial runners-up China finally tasted gold in a major championship when winners of the 2022 World Championship, without the Russians. They scored the highest overall score in the 2023 competition, despite only finishing seventh in the technical competition and also won both the technical and free events in 2024. At the 2022 World Championship, Japan took second in the technical routine along with a bronze in the freestyle. In 2023, they finished second overall, winning silver in the free and finishing fourth in the technical, while in 2024 it was silver in free and bronze in the technical. Italy took bronze in the technical discipline in 2022 and improved to bronze in 2023, whilst finishing second in both disciplines at the 2022 European Championships. They also finished second at the 2023 European Games in both disciplines, where Spain won both events. Spain won the technical event at the 2023 World Championship and finished fourth in the freestyle. In 2024, Spain won silver in the technical routine, while the United States claimed bronze in the free routine. Mexico were the 2023 Pan American Games winners but have struggled in world finals. Egypt finished eighth in the last Olympics but has also not competed on the world stage. Australia finished eighth in the technical event in 2024 and in the freestyle in 2023. Canada have been slightly better but not enough to compete for a medal. France won bronze medals at both the European Championship and the European Games.

There will be a new Olympic champion in Paris. China will expect to win a gold medal here. The weakness could be the technical, which cost them in 2023. Japan, Italy, Spain and the United States are the likeliest to contend for the title. Canada would need a peak performance along with the major contenders failing. Italy will trail on the free element of the competition and I’m not sure if they have enough to overcome that deficit. Japan are the most consistent, especially in the free element but they don’t have a massive gap over the other competitors. I think Spain can grab the bronze medal over the United States but that should be a close battle.

🥇China 🇨🇳

🥈Japan 🇯🇵

🥉Spain 🇪🇸