China win first gold in acrobatic team event with big lead over United States

PARIS – China won their first gold medal in artistic swimming at the Paris Olympics on Aug 7, as their lively acrobatic team routine wowed the judges and produced a total score well ahead of the United States, who took silver.

Russia, long the dominant force in the event, were excluded from these Games and in their absence China pulled through to win. They scored 996.1389 points with the Americans on 914.3421 and Spain third on 900.7319.

Teams from Russia and Belarus have been banned from taking part over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Belarus having been used as a staging ground.

Wearing red, sequinned swimsuits, the Chinese team tossed one swimmer high into the air, drawing applause from the crowd as she performed flips into the water.

The theme of China’s routine was “Light of Life”, and the music served as a fierce backdrop to the performance as the singer chanted during portions of the song.

“I feel like this gold medal for me is not only a personal achievement and dream, it’s also the dream for the entire artistic swimming team for China. We have a lot of responsibility on our shoulders,” said team member Feng Yu.

The swimmers formed a shape that represented a mountain, symbolising the work the team had put in to reach the gold medal, said Zhang Xiaohuan, one of the coaches for China.

“We wanted to show that this is overcoming difficulties and the peak of the mountain,” she added.

Paris marks the first time the acrobatic routine, which involves complex jumps, flips and tosses, has been introduced in Olympic artistic swimming.

The US delivered an ethereal routine with the theme “The sorceresses”, earning them their first team medal since Athens 2004.

The Chinese will aim for another gold when the artistic swimming duet event begins on Aug 9. REUTERS