Bill May misses out on USA Artistic Swimming Olympic roster for Paris 2024

By Chloe Merrell
2 min|
Bill May poses for a portrait during the 2024 Team USA Media Summit
Picture by 2024 Getty Images

Bill May has been left off the USA artistic swimming team for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

In an announcement on Saturday 8 June, Team USA revealed its full 12-athlete roster for the Games but the 45-year-old was absent.

A rule change in December 2022 by World Aquatics opened the door for men to compete in artistic swimming - formerly known as synchronised swimming - at the Olympics with up to two male swimmers per National Olympic Committee (NOC) permitted to compete in the eight-athlete team event.

Men have been permitted to compete at the World Aquatics Championships since 2015, but the Olympic stage was restricted to women until the recent move.

May, who had been part of the squad at the World Aquatics Championships in February and was part of the group that took silver at the same event the year before, showed great optimism at being selected.

The New Yorker started artistic swimming at the age of 10 before the rules surrounding the inclusion of men eventually meant competing wasn't a viable option.

May turned away from the sport until 2015 when the opportunity to be involved in the sport at the elite level became available again. Since then he has won five world championship medals.

However, Team USA opted to select no men for its Olympic roster.

With the US the last country to announce its squad for the upcoming Games, there will officially be no men competing in artistic swimming at Paris 2024.