China won its first gold medal in artistic swimming on Wednesday at the Paris Olympics following a lively acrobatic team routine that wowed the judges and produced a total score well ahead of the United States, who takes silver.
Russia, the dominant force in artistic swimming, has been excluded from the Games and in its absence, China pulled through to win gold with the US taking silver and Spain claiming the bronze medal in the acrobatic team event.
Wearing red sequined 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 acrobatic 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.
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 it its first medal in the team event since the Athens Games in 2004.
China scored a total of 996.1389 points with the U.S. 81.7968 on 914.3421 and Spain third with 900.7319.
China, which was favourite to win the acrobatic team title in the lead-up to Paris, has an opportunity to win another gold when the duet artistic swimming event begins on Friday.
Teams from Russia and Belarus have been banned from taking part in the Games over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Belarus having been used as a staging ground.
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