Synchronized swimming or artistic swimming is a sport where swimmers perform a synchronized choreographed routine, accompanied by music. The sport is governed internationally by World Aquatics. It has traditionally been a women's sport, although FINA introduced a new mixed gender duet competition that included one male swimmer in each duet at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships and LEN introduced men's individual events at the 2022 European Aquatics Championships. From 2024, men are able to compete in the team event at the Olympics.
The 1992 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994, the International Olympic Committee decided to hold the Summer and Winter Olympics in alternating even-numbered years. The 1992 Summer and Winter Olympics were the last games to be staged in the same year. These games were the second and last two consecutive Olympic games to be held in Western Europe after the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, held five months earlier.
Russia competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's third consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics as an independent nation. The Russian Olympic Committee sent a total of 446 athletes to the Games, 244 men and 202 women, to compete in all sports, except baseball, field hockey, football, and softball.
Sylvie Fréchette, is a Canadian former synchronised swimmer. She is the 1992 Olympic champion in the women's solo event.
At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, two events in synchronized swimming were contested, both for women only.
The women's team event at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, took place at the Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre from 26 to 27 August. The Russian synchronized swimmers delivered a superb performance to defend their Olympic title in the event, having received a straight line of five perfect marks from the judges for a composite score of 99.501. Japan maintained a silver-medal streak on its second Olympics by a single point short of Russia's score with 98.501, after displaying their explosive lifts and quick changes of pattern throughout the routine. Having failed to secure an Olympic medal in the sport from the previous Olympics, the U.S. squad assembled a colorful demonstration of multiple sequences and flying leaps to hold on for the bronze with a score of 97.418.
Marie-Pier Boudreau Gagnon is a Canadian synchronized swimmer and four times Commonwealth Games gold medalist.
The United States of America (USA), represented by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. U.S. athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games in the modern era, except the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, which was boycotted by the American team and 65 other countries in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The USOC sent a total of 588 athletes to Beijing (310 men and 286 women), and competed in all Olympic sports except handball.
Sarah Gay Josephson is an American Olympic champion and former competitor in synchronized swimming.
Kristen Elizabeth Babb-Sprague is an American former synchronized swimmer.
Kelly Kryczka is a Canadian competitor in synchronized swimming, world champion and Olympic medalist.
Nathalie Schneyder is an American competitor and Coach in synchronized swimming and was an Olympic champion in team competition in 1996 in Atlanta. She also won team golds in FINA World competitions and Pan Pacific competitions. She competed in team, individual, and duet synchronized competition.
Olga Genrikhovna Sedakova is a former Russian synchronized swimmer who competed at two Olympic Games, won three gold medals in the World Championships, and nine golds at the European Championships. In 2019, she was inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Anna Kozlova is a former synchronized swimmer who competed in three Olympic Games. After competing in the 1992 Summer Olympics and winning four European Championships representing the Soviet Union and its successor organizations, she defected to the United States in 1993. After missing the 1996 Atlanta Games due to a five-year wait to receive U.S. citizenship, she competed for her new country in Sydney, where her best placing was fourth. She went on to win gold medals in the Pan-American Games in 2003, before returning to her third and final Olympics in Athens, where she won two bronze medals.
The People's Republic of China competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the United Kingdom, between 27 July and 12 August 2012. This was the nation's ninth appearance at the Summer Olympics since its debut in 1952. A total of 396 Chinese athletes, 171 men and 225 women, were selected by the Chinese Olympic Committee to compete in 23 sports. For the fourth time in its Olympic history, China was represented by more female than male athletes.
Greece competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Greek athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games of the modern era, alongside Australia, France, Great Britain, and Switzerland. As the progenitor nation of the Olympic Games and in keeping with tradition, Greece entered first at the Maracanã Stadium during the opening ceremony.
Julie Sauvé was a Canadian synchronized swimming coach. Sauvé began her coaching career with the Club Aquatique Montréal Olympique in the 1970s before joining the Canadian synchronized swimming team in 1982. She continued to coach at the Club Aquatique Montréal Olympique until she was fired in 1993. While with the Canadian synchronized swimming team, Sauvé coached Olympic medallists Sylvie Fréchette, Penny Vilagos and Vicky Vilagos. After leaving the Canadian team in 2012, Sauvé coached the synchronized swimming teams of Brazil and Singapore during the remainder of the 2010s. Sauvé was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 2012.
Deborah Muir is a Canadian former synchronized swimmer and coach. She began her career with the Calgary Aquabelles club in 1965 and won silver medals in the synchronized swimming team competitions at both the 1971 Pan American Games and the 1973 World Aquatics Championships. At age 20, Muir retired from competition and began a career in coaching. She coached swimmers of the Calgary Aquabelles to 22 national titles over a decade. She also helped athletes clinch medals in the World Aquatics Championships, the FINA Cup, the Commonwealth Games, the Pan American Games and the Summer Olympic Games. Muir has won various awards for her coaching career, and is an inductee of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Sylvie Fortier is a Canadian former synchronized swimmer. She won medals in Canadian provincial and national competitions, at the World Aquatics Championships, the Pan American Games and the Pan Pacific Games. Fortier was named the 1976 world champion in synchronized swimming for her achievements that year and was a torch bearer for the opening ceremony of the Montreal Summer Olympics. She retired in 1977 aged just 18. Fortier is an inductee of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and the Aquatics Hall of Fame.
