2024 Olympics: Authorized but Absent, Why There Are No Men in the Artistic Swimming Events in Paris

“The International Swimming Federation is very disappointed that no artistic swimmers have been selected for Paris 2024. This should have been a landmark moment for the sport.” Shortly after the all-female roster for the U.S. artistic swimming team was announced on June 8, World Aquatics shared its disappointment that the team did not include Bill May, a pioneer in the sport. The first mixed duet world champion in 2015, the 45-year-old was the last chance to see a male representative at the Olympics .

Since the fall of 2022, the institution has allowed nations to select up to two men for team events , but none will dive into the Olympic swimming pool in Saint-Denis from Monday, August 5.

A technique that can still be improved.

At the 2023 World Championships, five nations had fielded a man in the acrobatic programby teams: the three medalists (China, United States, Japan), as well as Germany and Kazakhstan. The following year, there were only three (United States, Italy and Chile), and still none in the other team events.

“We knew it would be difficult for the men to earn their place in time for a team for the Games, given that their eligibility was only confirmed eighteen months ago, but we were hopeful that some would succeed.”

World Aquatics.

In addition to the late announcement of this historic decision, the swimmers are penalized by a point of the Olympic regulations. If, at the World Championships, nations can vary their team between the three events (technical, acrobatic, free), they must align the same one on the three events at the Olympic Games. In addition, the discipline has been experimenting with a new scoring system for a year, which severely penalizes each error.

“For the moment, the men do not have sufficient technical qualities , ” reacts the triple world champion in artistic swimming Virginie Dedieu, not surprised by the absence of male representatives at the Olympics. “The level does not arrive like that. And we had seen that Bill May or the Chinese swimmer Haoyu Shi had been tested at the World Championships only on acrobatics. They are more powerful, but it must follow on a technical level,” deciphers the consultant for France Télévisions. The swimmers are thus paying for the delay taken on their teammates, they who have only been able to compete at the world level for less than a decade.

The mixed duo track at the Olympics.

At the Artistic Swimming World Cup stage in Paris, at the beginning of May, the American team coach, Andrea Fuentes, had lined up Bill May for the first time in all three events. And the swimmer had shown some weaknesses. “He is a very good technician, but as his physical condition is too weak, he cannot handle the technique,” Virginie Dedieu analyzed at the time.

The idol of the new generation of artistic swimmers has not publicly reacted to his non-selection. In a message on Instagram, after the Paris competition, Bill May called on “countries to have the courage to change history” by including more men. Virginie Dedieu, whose son shines internationally in the youth category, wants to believe that men will find their place in the future. And bets on a rise in the level thanks to the emulation born from a greater presence of boys in clubs and competitions.

2024 Olympics No Men in the Artistic Swimming Events.

“The fact that men can participate in the Olympics will make young people want to take part.”

Virginie Dedieu, triple world champion in artistic swimming”.
To avoid another absence of men in Los Angeles in 2028, the international federation recalled that it was necessary to “work even harder to advance opportunities for male athletes” . “We are absolutely committed to having artistic swimmers in the team events in Los Angeles in 2028 and we will also continue to work to propose in time the addition of the mixed duet to the Olympic programme for these Games,” added World Aquatics.

To ensure the presence of artistic swimmers at the Olympics, Virginie Dedieu shares this request for the registration of the mixed duet. But on one condition: “It must not be done to the detriment of the women’s duet” . A difficult battle to lead as the IOC controls the addition of any new medal.