Miami's Daniella Ramirez and the U.S. artistic swimming team won silver at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, the Americans' first medal in the team event since bronze in Athens in 2004.
China won gold, finishing with 996.1389 points, ahead of the Americans' 914.3421 and Spain's 900.7319.
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It's a major achievement for the 22-year-old Ramirez, a third-generation artistic swimmer from Miami.
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It was a big medal for China, and also a step forward for the sport, which changed its name from synchronized swimming several years ago to update its image. Some swimmers still call it “synchro.”
“There is attention to the sport that has never happened before,” said Adam Andrasko, who heads USA Artistic Swimming. “This is an absolutely different sport.”
The smiles, the makeup and hair gelatin remain, but this is no longer the water ballet beneath flowery rubber caps that your grandparents watched.
Wednesday's acrobatic routines, after technical and free routines on Monday and Tuesday, put female athleticism on full display: power, endurance, and energy.
In the acrobatic routine, each team is required to include seven above-water elements. Seven times, a swimmer known as the “flier” is launched two meters (six feet) above the water surface into flips, twists and dives.
She's catapulted into the air from a base of swimmers below that are not allowed to touch the bottom of the pool.
Tricks, more muscular routines and more buzz now characterize the sport: like the Moonwalk routine — performed upside down with the swimmers heads under water — that the Americans performed Tuesday in the free routine.
Rules and judging changes adopted about 18 months ago have turned this into gymnastics on water — with a dramatic edge like figure skating. The risks are also higher.
“People are pleasantly confused about how in the world these women can do what they do,” Andrasko said.
