Artistic Swimming is making its first appearance at the Canada Games in six years, after switching from the winter to the summer games. The sport was last featured at the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, and is coming back in full force.
This year, all 10 provinces are participating, sending a total of 93 artistic swimmers to put their skills to the test on a national level. Joining them at the Games are 20 coaches and team leaders, as well as 27 officials.
They’ve all made the journey to St. John’s, NL, to compete at Memorial University’s newly renovated aquatics and sporting facility, The Works Aquarena.
While Canada Artistic Swimming rules and scoring systems will apply to all the events at the games, the event format will look slightly different.
The provinces will be competing for medals in 3 events: solo, duet and team. Each event will feature 2 programs: a technical routine as well as a free routine (or acrobatic routine, for the team event). The scores from each routine will be added to determine the final standings.
Each province is allowed two entries in the solo and duet events, and one entry in the team event. In all cases, the scores from the technical routines will be added to the free routine preliminaries scores to determine a preliminary ranking.
In solo and duet, where each province is only eligible for one medal, these combined scores will be used to set the line-ups in the “A” and “B” finals, in which the free routine will be performed again. Athletes in the A finals will be competing for medals, which will be determined by the combined score from the technical routine and the free routines finals.
In the team event, provinces will enter the final acrobatic program in reverse order from their preliminary ranking, with the medal placements and final rankings based on the combined score from the team technical and this final event.
In 2019, Alberta swept all three events, winning gold in solo, duet and team. This year, Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario have been showing promise at national events, as have routines from Saskatchewan, setting the stage for exciting match-ups at the Games.
The competition kicks off on Tuesday, Aug. 19, with the solo technical event at 14:40 (NST). The duet and team events follow on Wednesday, Aug. 20, with the final event scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 24.
Watch the events live on the Canada Games website, and follow start lists, results, and updates here or on the Sportity app.