China win first gold in acrobatic team event with big lead over US

China won their first gold medal in artistic swimming at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday with a lively acrobatic team routine that wowed the judges and produced a total score well ahead of the United States, who took silver.

Russia, long the dominant force in artistic swimming, have been excluded from the Games and in their absence China pulled through to win gold, with the US taking silver and Spain claiming the bronze medal.

Wearing red,sequined swimsuits, the Chinese team tossed one swimmer high into the air, drawing applause from the crowd as she performed flips into the water.

The theme of China's acrobatic routine was "Light of Life," and the music served as a fierce backdrop to the performance as the singer chanted during portions of the song.

🇨🇳 People's Republic of China secures its first Olympic GOLD in the team event with an impressive total of 996.1389. Team USA takes silver, while Spain earns bronze #ArtisticSwimming #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/fHps7vA7tG

— World Aquatics (@WorldAquatics) August 7, 2024

"I feel like this gold medal for me is not only a personal achievement and reaching my personal dream, it's also the dream for the entire artistic swimming team for China," said China's Feng Yu. "We have a lot of responsibility on our shoulders."

The swimmers formed a shape that represented a mountain, symbolising the work the team had put in to reach the gold medal, said Zhang Xiaohuan, one of the coaches for China.

"We wanted to show that this is overcoming difficulties and the peak of the mountain," she said.

Paris marks the first time the acrobatic routine, which involves complex jumps, flips and tosses, has been introduced in Olympic artistic swimming.

The US delivered an ethereal routine with the theme "the sorceresses," earning them their first medal in the team event since the Athens Games in 2004.

China scored a total of 996.1389 points with the US on 914.3421 and Spain getting 900.7319.

China, who were favourites to win the acrobatic team title in the lead-up to Paris, have an opportunity to win another gold when the duet artistic swimming event begins on Friday.

Teams from Russia and Belarus have been banned from taking part in the Games over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Belarus having been used as a staging ground.