The U.S. artistic swimming team, which went viral earlier this week for its stunning underwater moonwalk, performed an acrobatic routine on Wednesday that earned the team a silver medal. The second-place finish is the first medal for artistic swimming since 2004.
China, which has always been brilliant in artistic swimming, took the gold with an incredibly dominant performance. China finished with 996.1389 points, more than 81 points ahead of the United States and almost 300 points ahead of last-placed Egypt.
The artistic swimming team competition is held in three rounds, with teams performing three routines (one technical, one freestyle and one acrobatic) over three consecutive days. The final score is cumulative and based on the three routines.
On Monday, Team USA started off strong with a Michael Jackson-inspired performance that went viral for its technical routine, which included a sequence where they moonwalked upside down. The team performed the incredibly difficult move while Jackson’s hit song “Smooth Criminal” played and ended up with the fourth-highest score, 282.7567 points.
The United States then had an especially strong performance in its free routine, earning 360.2688 points and moving up to second place.
Wednesday, the third and final day, was for the acrobatic competition, where teams perform tricks and jumps inside the pool, like a cheerleading competition partially underwater.
The final round featured a number of creative and complex routines, including a performance featuring a trap remix of the “Lion King” soundtrack (Egypt), a tribute to the Moulin Rouge (France), a routine featuring a mashup of “O Fortuna,” Eminem and some cool guitar riffs (Spain), an alligator-themed routine (Japan) and much more.
Competing in the middle of the table, Spain put in a great acrobatic performance and took the lead with a total score of 900.731. They would later finish third and take bronze.
The U.S. team came in second to last, with a spectacular “witch”-themed routine that earned them first place with a total of 914.3421 points. China put in an incredible performance and took home the gold, leaving the U.S. very satisfied with the silver.
Artistic swimming is not over yet: Qualifiers for the duet event will take place on Friday, with the final on Saturday. Americans Jaime Czarkowski and Megumi Field, who also competed in the team event with Team USA, will compete as a pair against a very large field.
