Guide Note

An Olympic aquatic sport, women's synchronized swimming has been part of the Summer Olympics since 1984.¹

Two sets of synchronized swimming medals were awarded, one team and one duet, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The synchronized swimming events were held from August 18 to August 23, 2008, at the Beijing National Aquatics Center.² Russia won the gold medal in the duet and team competitions. Spain captured the silver medals in each event. Japan won the bronze medal in the duet competition, while China took home bronze in the team event.³

Fast Facts

1. Became a full medal sport in 1984¹
2. Women's sport²
3. Two medals, team and duet²
4. Duets perform a technical routine and a preliminary free routine; top-scoring duets then perform the free routine for a second time⁴
5. Teams consist of eight swimmers⁴
6. Teams perform one technical and one free routine⁴
7. Routines scored on artistic interpretation and technical difficulty, with each assessment marked on a 10-point scale by five judges¹

After appearing as a demonstration sport at the Olympics from 1948 to 1968, synchronized swimming was introduced as a full medal sport at the 1984 Summer Olympics.¹ At the 1984, 1988 and 1992 games, medals were awarded to the top solo and duet swimmers. In 1996, those events were replaced with an eight-person team event. The duet competition was reintroduced in 2000 and has been contested alongside the team event in the years since.⁵

Brazilian identical twins Bia and Branca Feres are competing as synchronized swimmers in the 2008 Summer Olympics. In addition to being Olympic swimmers, the twins are models and have appeared on the cover of the Spanish-language magazine VIP. The sisters were born in Rio de Janeiro and studied in Seattle, Washington in 2004 and 2005 as exchange students at Roosevelt High School.

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