Written by Maureen Croes, FINA Media
Committee Member
The second edition of the FINA World
Youth Artistic Swimming Championships concluded with the team representing the
host United States of America crowned as the overall winner of the
Championships. For the past week, the Mecklenburg Aquatic Center located
amongst the skyscrapers, rooftop patios, and major league sports venues in one
of the most beautiful cities in the USA, Charlotte, North Carolina, has been
the site where the future elite Artistic Swimming athletes were able to
showcase their talents while competing against one another for the top honours.
For the global collection of young
athletes in Charlotte, it has been a week full of exciting experiences. Due to
the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting cancellations of many in-person events,
Charlotte was the first international championship for most participants.
Australia’s Sydney Rietman and Misaki
Yasuda: “This is both of our first International Championships, our first World
experience, everything this week was the best.”
Slovakia’s Zofia Strapekova: “It was
really fun being here and competing and getting the chance to meet people from
other countries”
El Salvador’s Maria Jose Argueta and
Daira Sanchez: “We are so happy being here, we reached our goal for the score.
We made many new friends and learned a lot about competing.”
USA’s Ayla Barry: “This is such a
cool experience, to be in an international competition. Most of us have never
been to a World Championship and seeing all these different countries.”
Mexico’s Camila Argumedo Gomez and
Carolina Arzate Carbia: “Getting to know all the athletes from the other
countries was fun, but the athlete social dinner was the best part of the whole
week”
Korea’s Jiyoon Kim and Chayeun Lee:
“We did a good job and that is making us smile. Getting the chance to compete
and to do good is the best.”
After the preliminary rounds on
Wednesday and Thursday, the best twelve routines in each of the events had
another opportunity to perform in front of the judges to showcase their
choreography. A great number of the
choreographies featured music from older artists, Michael Jackson, Queen and
Janis Joplin to name a few. When asked
about the choices for their music, Kazakhstan’s Aldiyar Ramazanov who swam his
choreography to Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean”
shared that he is a huge fan of Michael Jackson’s dancing and singing
talent. USA’s Ayla Barry said she never knew who Janis Joplin was and that the
coaches chose the music for her, but she has since fallen in love with the
energy and power of the song because it allows for so many different
opportunities within the song.
As was the case in Charlotte, often,
the final rankings in all events in the youth category remain uncertain until
the end, because the final scores are determined by adding the score earned by
the athletes in the Figures event to the score awarded in the final round of
each of the events. The performance of
the athletes in the Figures event can be unpredictable and has the potential to
change the final ranking of the events.
Solo
The gold medal was won by
fourteen-year-old Japanese superstar Moe Higa. Higa’s performance of her “A
Strange Story” choreography based upon a mysterious Japanese anime was awarded
82.6000 points to bring her total to 161.8745 points after the addition of her
Figures event score. Although Higa is only fourteen years old, she already won
two silver and one bronze medals in the Technical and Free Team and Team Combo
events as a member of Team Japan at the 19th FINA World Championships this past
June in Budapest, Hungary.
Moe Higa: “I am having fun, being
here. this has been the best time.”
With an accumulated score of 159.8308,
the 2022 European Youth Solo and Duet Champion France’s Laelys Alavez claimed
the silver medal. Alavez’s choreography portraying the metamorphosis of a doll
received 81.2000 points.
Ranked in third for the bronze medal
with 156.4607 points, Spain’s Carla Lorenzo Llusca swum to the music “Voila”
and received 79.6667 for her performance which she claimed to be representative
of herself.
Carla Lorenzo Llusca: “You have to
love yourself and what matters is what you think of yourself. The title of the
music “Voila”, indicates here I am, and to always be yourself. It was difficult
being by myself, representing my country, but I am very happy.”
Male Solo
With 148.8850 points, France’s Lucas
Valliccioni wrote his name into the record books by becoming the first-ever
World Youth Champion in the first international male-only event in artistic
swimming. Valliccioni received 73.4667 points for his performance to the music
by fellow countryman Arsene Lupin. The
choreography and music allowed the Frenchman to demonstrate his power and
technical expertise beautifully.
Said Valliccioni: “The routine was
hard, physically, but I stayed strong mentally, and the music brought me
energy. When I saw the scores, I was very happy.”
The silver medal was awarded to USA’s
Michael Chan with 143.9045 points after he received 71.3000 for his routine
“The Eye of the Tiger”.
“I had a rough start, but than I had
this surge of adrenaline and felt like I had more energy. This music allows me
to showcase my power as a male artistic swimming. Parts of the choreography are
my own, but parts were done by the coaches to increase the level of
difficulty.”
With a final score of 137.0333,
Kazakhstan’s Aldiyar Ramazanov, claimed the bronze medal in this historic
event. Ramazanov received 66.7000 for his routine swum to the song “Billy Jean”
by Michael Jackson.
“It was difficult, but it did go
well, and I am happy with the final results.”
Duet
The gold medal, with 158.228 combined
points, went to the “Evil Mermaids” routine performed by the Spaniards Rocio
Calle Garcia and Xenia de la Puente Descals with their 79.6333 point
performance. In a beautiful act of good
sportsmanship, Calle Garcia and de la Puente Descals were acknowledging the
importance of the reserve to the duet Marina Sarmiento Figueredo to their
success.
“We are so satisfied with the
results, but we know that this is the work of all three of us. A duet is not
just the two who swim the routine in the competition. It is all the work done
by the three of us to get to the competition, to get the results, the three of
us are all winners.”
With a final score of 154.803, the
Japanese duo Rena Matsumoto and Risako Mitsuhasi, earned the silver medal.
Although the Japanese outscored the Spaniards in the routine portion of the
competition with an 80.6333, their results from the Figure event were not
sufficient to outrank the Spanish duo for the final results.
The third step on the podium was claimed
by the Canadian duo Olena Verbinska and Abby Wang. The Canadians claimed the
bronze medal with 153.403 points after scoring 77.3000 for their “Robot”
routine,
“The social and the training were the
best parts of this week. All we want to do now is keep training to get to the
next international competitions.”
Mixed Duet
USA claimed their sole gold medal in
Charlotte came through the performance of the duo Michael Chan and Jennifer
Ryu. The duet scored 73.6667 for their K-pop “I Am the Best” routine, which
they inherited from pioneer Bill May and duet partner Natalia Vega. Combined
with their Figures result, the Americans topped the rankings with 146.426
points.
Jennifer Ryu: “I was smiling the
whole time; we were having a lot of fun with it. The song keeps repeating “I am
the best”, and that is what we are trying to portray.”
The silver medal went to Great
Britain’s Maxwell Sewell and Eve Young for their choreography on “Beggin”’ by
Maneskin. The pair received 69.8333 points for a total of 136.547 points. The
pair happily explained the theme of the routine which involved the universally
known “chase” within relationships.
Maxwell Sewell: “I really want her,
but she does not want me back. But today it looks like we were able to
succeed. I felt like we really got it
together today.”
The final spot on the podium was
claimed by Kazakhstan’s Yasmina Islamova and Aldiyar Ramazanov who received
68.3726 points for their routine to rank in third place with 136.172 points
overall.
Team
Spain and Japan were awarded the
exact same score for their final Team routine presentations, 82.0000
points. However, due to a solid lead
over the Japanese in the Figures score, Spain secured its second gold medal
with a combined score of 158.270 for their “Avatar” routine.
“Like the theme in Avatar, when you
are in conflict, you need to be able to rely on each other and be united. That
is how we are as a team.”
With the silver medal routine,
“Nightmare” Japan ended with 156.444 points, while the bronze medal, with a
combined score of 151.273 went to the USA for their “Birds” routine.
Ayla Barry: “The music is super
powerful, yet very beautiful and soft. We all picked different birds that we
were going to represent, from an eagle to a wire bird and a falcon.”
Team Combination
Japan earned its second gold medal in
Charlotte by scoring 82.4000 points in the Team Combo event with their “Pirates
of the Caribbean” choreography.
“We thought we made some small
mistakes, and we probably could have done a little better, but we had fun swimming
today.”
Spain scored 81.3667 points to claim
the silver medal with their Cirque du Soleil’s “Amaluna” routine which they
inherited from the very successful 2015 Spain National Senior team. With
78.5667 points, the team from the USA stepped on the last spot of the podium to
take home the bronze medal for their performance of the “Marionettes” routine.
“It went better than the prelims and
we are satisfied with the results. Working together with this group has been
amazing and it was a learning experience about international competitions.”
Full results of the Championships can
be found on the FINA Website.
To re-live the competition, catch all
the action again on the FINA YouTube event playlist.
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