The world of artistic swimming is all about synchronization of skills. Taking it to the next level at the Paris Olympics, day 15 of the Summer Games saw four sets of twins (one of them part of a set of triplets) in action in the duet competition on Saturday (August 10). (Medal Table | Schedule & Results | Full Coverage)
One of those pairs was the Chinese duo of Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi, who took home the gold medal with a total of 566.4783 points. They held off two teams that bagged the first-ever artistic swimming medals for their countries.
Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe of Britain claimed the silver with 558.5367, edging out another set of twins, Noortje and Bregje de Brouwer, who earned bronze for the Netherlands at 558.3963.
The win for China highlighted its growing dominance in Olympic artistic swimming, especially with Russia not being allowed to participate. From Sydney 2000 to Tokyo 2020, Russia had won every single artistic swimming gold medal at the Olympic Games. But the invasion of Ukraine led to Russia's ouster and hence their end of reign.
The Wang twins’ win crowned a superb fortnight for China at the Olympic Aquatics Centre next to the Stade de France. The sisters were also part of the eight-member squad that won gold in the team competition, adding to their world championship titles in 2022 and 2024 in both, duet free and duet technical.
