Britain and The Netherlands did Europe proud at the Paris 2024 Games as they secured silver and bronze respectively in the women’s duet event, thus claiming their nation’s first Olympic medals in artistic swimming.
British pairing Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe totalled 558.5367 points behind China’s world champions Wang Qianyi and Wang Liuyi, who scored 566.4783.
The Netherlands also reached the podium as twin sisters Bregje and Noortje de Brouwer, the newly established European champions, totalled 558.3963, with Austria’s Anna-Maria and Eirini-Marina Alexandri finishing fourth ahead of Ukraine and Greece.
Spain earned Europe a half-share in the six medals on offer in the French capital as they finished third in the Team event behind winners China and the United States.
For the first time, up to two male athletes were admissible in the Olympic Team event – which was previously a women’s competition – but on this occasion none were selected.
While the Chinese pairing had been unbeatable in February at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, where they took both the duet free and duet technical titles, they shared the podium on both occasions with two European pairs.
In the free routine they narrowly defeated the de Brouwers, with Shortman and Thorpe securing bronze, while in the technical routine it was the British pair who earned silver, with bronze going to Spain’s Alisa Ozhoghina and Iris Tio.
Jacqueline Simoneau of Canada beat Evangelia Platanioti of Greece to the solo free title, but the roles were reversed in the solo technical routine.
Europe won two of the nine medals on offer in Team events, with Ukraine earning silver in the acrobatic routine and Spain taking bronze in the technical routine.
Less than a month before artistic swimming got underway at the Olympics the de Brouwers had the ideal preparation as they won the duet free and duet routine titles at the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade.
Shortman and Thorpe took silver in both events, with two bronzes going to the Israeli pairing of Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee.
In the Team events, Germany won the Acrobatic routine, Greece took gold in the Free routine and the Technical routine title went to Spain.
Germany’s Klara Bleyer and Marloes Steenbeek of The Netherlands made a huge impact on the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup.
Bleyer, who turned 20 on May 6, won her first major title at the World Cup Super Final in Budapest, winning the women solo free event and earning silver in the solo technical routine.
Steenbeek, 19, won bronze in both events.
The two young athletes had already shown hugely promising form in preceding World Cups.
Steenbeek picked up a bronze in the solo technical routine at the opening World Cup in Beijing.
She added two more in the technical and free events at the second World Cup held at the newly opened Olympic Aquatic Centre in Paris – in an event that served as a Test event for the Games.
Bleyer picked up two silvers in the solo technical and free routines in the French capital, each time behind Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri.
The women duet technical title in the Super Final went to Ukraine’s Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva, with Israel’s Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee taking bronze.
The Israeli pair also picked up a silver in the women duet free routine.
Earlier in the season Steenbeek had taken silver in the women’s free solo routine at the European Junior Artistic Swimming Championships in Cottonera, Malta behind Isabel Cui of Spain, before those positions were reversed in the women’s technical solo final.
Steenbeek finished her year by taking another step up the podium as she won silver in the solo technical and free routines at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming Junior Championships in Lima.
Ukraine’s Daria Moshynska and Anastasiia Shmonina won gold in the women’s duet free routine and silver in the duet technical.
Greece’s Zoi Karangelou also topped the podium in the women’s solo free.
Meanwhile Spain came away from the Peruvian capital with four medals, all bronze, two of which were contributed by Naia Alvarez Vicente and Rocio Calle Garcia in the women’s duet technical and free routines, with the other two coming in the Team technical and Team free events.
