Artistic Swimming Team Takes First Medal In 20 Years — A Silver

SAINT-DENIS, France — The only thing better than going viral at the Olympics is winning a silver medal, the first of any color in 20 years for your sport.

Making up for lost time after not qualifying in the team event for the past four Olympics, the U.S. artistic swimmers started their first team event — which takes place over three days and includes three routines: a technical routine, a free routine, and for the first time, an acrobatic routine — with a bang. 

As Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” played over the loudspeakers at the Aquatic Centre just outside Paris, the eight-person team began their technical routine in the water and were quickly upside down with their feet above the water moonwalking.

“Our coaches were telling us, we were underwater so we couldn't hear but the crowd went crazy,” the first three-time Olympian for artistic swimming, Anita Alvarez recalled. “And now we’re seeing videos blow up all over the internet, which I think is great for the sport. Anything to help grow the sport.”

The credit for that sensational routine goes to their head coach, Andrea Fuentes, a four-time Olympic medalist for Spain who is responsible for the team’s choreography.

“I feel like Andrea has put this program in a place where we can push ourselves every day in a positive way,” first-time Olympian, Ruby Remati said. “She makes us want to train harder and I think she’s done a good job of shaping this program to be what it is today.”

That routine landed them in fourth place going into the free routine, which is different from the technical routine, where everyone is required to do the same thing. Their score put them just behind China for the chance at a medal going into the final event. 

In the newly-added acrobatic routine, which must include seven elements that emphasize airborne movements and platform artistry, Team USA finished just 12 points behind the Chinese, who dominated in all three disciplines and took home the gold with a combined score of 996.1389. 

“Just to see how clean they can be and how well-executed they can perform everything,” Jamie Czarkowski said about their Chinese competitors who hold the World Aquatics top-ranked spot in several categories, “it’s a big inspiration for us. They deserve that gold medal.”

Team competition concluded on Wednesday night, but Czarkowski, 20, and 18-year-old Megumi Field — who is one of the youngest on the team — will compete again on Friday for the duet competition, an event the U.S. has competed in at every Games since artistic swimming was added to the program in 1984. The technical routine will be first, finishing with the free routine on Saturday.

“Our goal has been to focus on the team event, and so to have been able to accomplish this as a team has been so great,” Field said. “We'll celebrate tonight, and then we’ll really focus on the duet.”

Lisa Costantini has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than a decade, including for the International Olympic Committee. She is a freelance writer who has contributed to TeamUSA.com since 2011.