ARTISTIC SWIMMING: Australia competed in the final portion of the artistic swimming competition for Tokyo 2020, finishing in ninth place.
After last night’s meticulously executed technical routine, the Aussies finished their Olympic campaign with the free routine, just pure unrestrained artistic swimming.
Scoring a respectable 77.3667, six Australian artistic swimmers made their second Olympic performance of the Games at the now iconic Tokyo Aquatic Centre as part of the eight-member artistic swimming squad.
Carolyn Buckle, Hannah Burkhill, Kiera Gazzard, Alessandra Ho, Kirsten Kinash, and Rachel Presser put on a show, in and out of the pool, being led by dual Olympians Amie Thompson and Emily Rogers.
The Australians were second to perform their free routine in the sport’s final session. Citing hit TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender as their inspiration and boy did they deliver.
“It felt amazing, that’s the best score I’ve ever received at an international competition, so I’m pretty happy for what I could see.” Thompson said.
From the moment they appeared on camera the eight athletes moved harmoniously, diving into the water to perform to the soundtrack featured in the show, instantly sparking familiarity to those familiar with the Nickelodeon cartoon.
“We were looking at using the elements, so our music comes from the water bender and the fire bender, we had a mixture of strong and soft music. So strong music was trying to reflect the power that fire can have, and soft music was water.”
The score was a personal best for the Australians, 2.8 points better than their performance at the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.
Rodgers was overall pleased with the team’s performance, enjoying her time on the world stage.
“We got another PB in our score, so I’m really happy. Personally, it felt like a really fun swim for me, it felt like a good vibe a calm vibe which is what we really like it’s what we’ve been doing in practice and to do the same in the competition. So yeah, I’m hoping we’ve done what we’ve been training.”
With a total across the two disciplines of 153.0018, it’s a big improvement for the team since Rio. Paris 2024 isn’t too far away now where the artistic swimming medal chase for Australia will continue.
That may be the last of the artistic swimming at the Games but with the World Championships coming up in less than a year’s time, the Aussie’s will be back on the international stage soon.
Sarah Dyce
