OLYMPIC PREVIEW: ARTISTIC SWIMMING
AS GOOD AS IT GETS
S
happy with that.” ynchronized swimming first became an Olympic sport in 1984. In the early years, competition was DESTINED FOR GREATNESS held for solo, duet and team events, Both Romashina and Kolesnichenko with the United States, Canada and have accumulated a stockpile of gold Japan winning all the medals. In 1996, medals throughout their careers. solo and duet were dropped from the Romashina’s five Olympic gold Russia is a perfect 10-for-10, winning program, with the USA winning the medals (three team and two duet since team gold. every Olympic gold medal possible in 2008) ties her for the most in her By 2000, duet was reinstated and sport with Anastasia Davydova and artistic swimming—duet and team— has remained with team as the current Natalia Ishchenko, also from Russia. since the turn of the century. program. Then in 2017, synchronized The 31-year-old also has won 21 gold swimming changed its name to artistic medals at the World Championships BY DAN D’ADDONA swimming. dating back to 2005 and has 12 One thing, though, that hasn’t first-place finishes at the European changed since the turn of the century Championships since 2006. is the domination of Russia, which has Kolesnichenko, 27, has won only one Olympic gold medal—as won every gold medal possible. And Russia is poised to keep it that a member of Russia’s winning team in 2016—but she has 26 gold way in 2021. medals between Worlds (16 since 2011) and Europeans (10 since Leading the way are Svetlana Romashina and Svetlana Kolesnichenko, who have never won a medal of any other color at 2014). She teamed with Romashina to win the duet competition the Olympics, World Championships or European Championships. at the 2013 and 2019 World Championships, and the duo will be Most recently at the Europeans in May, the duo continued to favored to win in Tokyo. dominate, earning one perfect mark in their duet free final, the only The two seemed destined to compete together from the very perfect score of the competition. The last time any judge handed out start: “I vividly remember that day,” Kolesnichenko told FINA, a perfect score came in 2010! referring to when Romashina first asked her to join her in duet. “I “It was such a happy moment when we saw the 10, because it is was driving a car and received a text message from Sveta: ‘Would not so usual you can see that mark,” Kolesnischenko said. “It was so you like to join me in the duet? It’s not a joke.’ great. Seconds before Svetlana said to me, ‘Maybe 10’—and when “I was shocked, surprised and flattered by the attention paid to I realized there was a 10 on the scoreboard—I said, ‘Look at this, me. I knew that to be a part of the first-ranked Russian synchro duet Svetlana, there is a 10.’ is a huge responsibility. But I could hardly refuse such an offer. “We hope to see more 10s in the future and, of course, we try to Many thanks to Sveta and Tatiana Danchenko for their choice.” work harder, but now we are happy for the score, for our performance Romashina, who gave birth to a daughter following the 2016 Rio and our routine. And our coach, Tatiana Danchenko, told us the duet Olympic Games before returning to win three gold medals at the was good, so we are really satisfied.” 2019 World Championships, spoke to The Olympic Channel about They also dominated the duet technical final and helped Russia her artistic swimming success: “I love synchro. It’s my life. It’s my win the team technical gold medal, beating Ukraine and Spain. job,” she said. “I know that I will do anything to win.” “It was good enough for this win, only,” Romashina said. “Our And as they have proved so often, these two Golden Girls—as coach saw some mistakes that we need to correct if we want to well as their Russian teammates—will be tough to beat next month, win at the Olympics. This was a strong performance, but we need Aug. 2-7, in Tokyo. to improve. This gold medal is what we came here for, so we are > PICTURED ABOVE (From Left) Even though the two are separated in age by four years, their actual birthdays are only one day apart: Svetlana Romashina, Sept. 21, 1989; Svetlana Kolesnichenko, Sept. 20, 1993. [ PHOTO BY JOAO MARC BOSCH ]
26
JULY 2021
SWIMMINGWORLD.COM
