Power ranking every single sport at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics

43. Artistic Swimming

This is just another example of a different form of dancing that isn’t just dancing. Most people know artistic swimming as “synchronized swimming,” which is a routine done “in sync” by partners or larger groups performed to music. It’s… definitely something. 

The sport was renamed “artistic swimming” at the IOC's behest. This move was not without controversy, as many think the new name further corrodes the event's stereotypes. FINA, which decided on the name change, said it hoped this would better describe the sport and lead to more opportunities. 

It does feel like the leaders of synchronized swimming were trying to move away from its past as the “water ballet,” but what exactly do they think the public wants from this event? It’s dancing in water, which basically limits how athletic the dancing can be. It relies more on memory and timing over actual athletics. Don’t get this wrong, it’s impressive to hit some of those moves with perfection, but it’s a weird fit for the Olympics.

This is to say nothing about ability. Very few people in this world can pull off what these artistic swimmers can do, but that doesn’t make it entertaining. It’s basically ice skating if the ice melts. The fearlessness of ice skating routines is what is impressive. While there are probably dangers involved in artistic swimming, it’s nothing like the other artistic sports we’ve seen.