After three days of thrilling competition, Team Spain secured a brilliant bronze medal in the Artistic Swimming Team Event in Paris. The final rankings were determined by adding the scores of the Team Technical, Team Free and Team Acrobatic – on the Olympic programme for the first time.

The Spanish team came into tonight’s acrobatic event ranked third, but still in a tight fight with Japan and France to hang on to that position. The Spanish knew they couldn’t afford any mistakes, and handled the pressure beautifully in their “One Shot, One Opportunity” routine, which they had last showcased at the Doha World Championships.

They had an impeccable swim and reached a cumulative score of 900.7319 to clinch the bronze behind the People’s Republic of China (996.1389) in gold and the United States of America (914.3421) in silver.

“I feel really excited,” said team captain Meritxell Mas Pujadas. “It’s been a lot of work. We were really nervous before tonight, we knew that we had to fight a lot until the end, but I trusted my team and it was all worth it. It’s a lot of emotions right now…  I’m really, really, really happy. I was also nervous because it was my first time being a flier for the acrobatics. It was crazy, I had never done it, but I accepted the challenge. It was a goal for me to achieve, so I’m really happy about that too.”

“I don’t realize what’s happening yet,” Lilou Lluis Valette said. “I can’t stop crying, I can’t even find the words. We’ve been so focused since we woke up, and all day has just been perfect. Today is really a perfect day.”

Spain had finished seventh in Tokyo – this Paris team actually includes five returning Olympian from that squad – and secured its first Olympic medal since 2012.

Despite scoring higher than Spain in tonight’s acrobatic routine, France came just a bit short and finished fourth with a total of 886.6487. This however equals the country’s previous best finish from the Sydney Olympics, which was also the last time the team had qualified to the Games.

The French went all-in tonight, declaring the highest degree of difficulty of the event (27.95) and performing two brand-new acrobatic moves. To the delight of the home crowd, they showcased another new routine tonight to the theme of French Cancan, which also included a lovely surprise for the audience on the deckwork as they unveiled a French flag on their swimsuits.

The French had a great swim, scoring 268.8001 in this routine alone, making them the top European country in the acrobatic routine once again, after winning the European title in 2023.

“I’m very proud and moved,” Eve Planeix said. “It was great to experience it with this great team. Over these three evenings, we managed to show some incredible things, to stand out from the crowd and to be credited with all our difficulties. We’d have liked the scores to have been a little higher, we wanted the medal, but we’re proud of ourselves. We’ll have to recover from our emotions a little to savor this moment. The first image that comes to mind is of us hugging each other in the middle of the pool, with the public cheering us on.”

The team of Italy occupied the eighth position after two, and realistically would have needed the help of other nations to be back in the running for a medal. Yesterday, the Italians received a penalizing basemark in their free team routine, and could never quite recover from it. They did however give it their all until the very last routine, performing their “Venice Carnival” routine cleanly to finish in eighth place with a total score of 845.9670.

Finally, Europe’s excellence was in a way represented across the board on this podium. The team from the People’s Republic of China has been working with former Spanish national coach and famous coach Anna Tarrés. Additionally, the United States has surged back to the top of the international podiums in the last few years under the guidance of head coach Andrea Fuentes, a four-time Olympic medalist for Spain.

Artistic swimming will start up again on Friday, August 9, with the duet competition. 18 pairs will take part in the event, including nine from Europe who all have a realistic shot at the medals: Austria, France, Great Britain, Greece, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Ukraine.