The U.S. artistic swimming team, which includes a Korean-American athlete from Los Angeles, won its first Olympic medal in 20 years.
On August 7, the national team secured a place on the podium in the artistic swimming team event at the Paris Olympic Games with a final score of 914.34 points. China won the gold medal with 996.14 points, while Spain took bronze with 900.73 points.
Audrey Kwon and Northern California artistic swimmer Keana Hunter were key to the team’s silver medal, according to local media.
Kwon, the youngest of the eight members of the artistic swimming team at age 18, was born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was 2 years old. She spent her childhood in Seattle and now lives in Los Angeles.
Kwon began practicing at age 8 and competed internationally for the first time at age 12, just four years later. In 2018, she was selected for the USA Artistic Swimming Youth National Team and won first place in the team event and second place in solo at the UANA Pan American Championships.
During the five-day Olympic event, Team USA finished fourth on the first day of competition in the technical routine with a performance set to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” The team followed that up with high scores in the free routine and acrobatic routine to finish second overall.
Artistic swimming, also widely known as synchronized swimming, was first included as an Olympic sport at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The U.S. hadn’t competed in artistic swimming at the Olympics since 2008, having failed to qualify. They hadn’t won a team medal since 2004, when they took bronze. This silver medal marks a triumphant return to the Olympic stage for Team USA.
BY SUAH JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.suah@koreadaily.com]
