How artistic swimming ‘sorcery’ and a cure for acrophobia gave USA its Olympic medal groove back at Paris 2024
Being flung into the air from a pool by seven swimmers at an Olympic Games is a feat few would dare to try. Especially if you have a phobia of heights.
Audrey Kwon did just that to help Team USA clinch a silver medal on Wednesday, 7 August, the first Olympic artistic swimming medal for the United States in 20 years.
Team USA’s journey to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 defied the odds in more ways than just choosing an athlete with acrophobia to perform acrobatic moves. They had a team member faint and almost drown in the pool, missed qualification to Paris 2024 by less than a point at the 2023 Pan American Games, took a chance on a 44-year-old male swimmer to help them get those quotas, and ultimately qualified a team to the Olympics for the first time since 2008.
After a turbulent 20-year period in which the once-dominant USA continued to miss the podium in artistic swimming, it was only fitting that Wednesday's acrobatic routine, which would decide the final rankings in the team event at Paris 2024, revolved around the themes of sorcery and miracles.
"It was magic," team coach Andrea Fuentes, told Olympics.com. "It has been a dream of a system that we have created."
Overcoming phobias and Team USA's other creative training techniques
The acrobatic routine is a new addition to the artistic swimming judging system at the Olympic Games. At previous Games, only the scores from the technical and free routines were added up to decide the team’s overall ranking.
For Kwon, the addition of a third routine proved a lifeline for making her sports dream come true. She had a long-time passion for artistic swimming, but was anxious that she might not be selected for the team since she was shorter than other artistic swimmers. It was, however, the perfect height for an acrobatics specialist.
There was just one problem. Kwon had a fear of heights.
This is where Fuentes came in, helping the 18-year-old Kwon to overcome her fears.
The USA coach, herself a four-time Olympic medallist for Spain, and her husband Victor Cano, a two-time Olympian in artistic gymnastics, invented a unique method to banish Kwon's acrophobia for good: Kwon had to eat breakfast on the pool’s diving platform for three months to become confident with being perched high up.
"We've tried so many different exercises, so many different cool things for the lifts, and it really paid off," Kwon told Olympics.com. "Sometimes I'm trying to jump as high as the diving board and touch it, or we do a long platform lift — just so many different challenges."
The plan worked. On Wednesday night at the Aquatics Centre, Kwon was propelled time and time again into the air in front of a mesmerised audience.
"I think over time, I learned to enjoy it more," Kwon said of her newfound appreciation for acrobatics. "Every day working on the flying and acrobatics, I just got used to it. It does get a little scary sometimes, but it's a lot better now."
Audrey Kwon, the acrobatics specialist on Team USA, cured her fear of heights thanks to some creative training strategies from coach Andrea Fuentes.
Fear-inducing breakfasts near the pool rooftop were not the only creative training strategies Fuentes used to break the 20-year artistic swimming medal drought for Team USA.
“The Friday Challenge” has become a team ritual and a key factor in the athletes' eagerness to keep pushing the bar on the difficulty and creativity of their routines.
"Every Friday we do something a little bit crazy that has a relation to our sport, but not completely," Fuentes said. "For example, one day I was like, 'You have to fly over the swimming flags that we have there, without touching them.' It was very high; it took three weeks to accomplish it. Sometimes I tell them, 'OK, you need to create a six-minute platform and then you have to jump and finish on land.' Things that are crazy to accomplish. But it's useful because you do team-building and you'll prepare them for any challenge."
Anita Alvarez, the only athlete on the team with previous Olympic experience, has enjoyed this revamp of their training sessions since Fuentes came aboard six years ago.
"She coaches in a different style. She wants to lead with love," Alvarez said of her coach. "She wants us all leaving the sport feeling like we want to do this over and over. She doesn't want us leaving burned out and tired like we hate the sport, so she gets very creative with the way she plans her training.
"We're working very hard, but we're also remembering to enjoy what we do because this is our passion, and this is why we started this sport in the first place when we were little girls."
Showtime for "The Sorceresses"
The fruits of Fuentes' unique approach to training were visible on Wednesday when Team USA overcame more experienced opponents to claim the silver medal.
Pre-competition, cheerful music boomed in the Aquatics Centre while spectators waved flags to its beat. Even the judges danced in their seats. Once the first team walked out, however, it was all business.
There was nothing easy-going about the athletes' music choices on the final night of the team competition. Hard rock, rap and death metal were among the favourite go-to's as sequined swimsuits, coupled with the heart-pounding rhythm, transformed the pool into a mecca of glam rock.
France got the crowds roaring with a can-can themed Moulin Rouge routine. Mexico rolled out the red carpet for Matlalcueye, the native goddess of water and navigation, while Egypt paid tribute to the broader African continent by re-enacting The Lion King's coronation scene, set to the "Circle of Life."
Spain and Canada both performed to Eminem’s "Lose Yourself," as if to emphasise that Paris 2024 was that “one shot or one opportunity” for artistic swimmers.
Performing second to last, USA took Eminem's message to heart.
Their routine, set to a mix of seven dark and hypnotising tracks, was packed with high lifts and complex throws, including one where an athlete flipped to land on an outstretched leg and used that human platform as support for yet another flip.
"We were trying to show how powerful we are in our skin and as women," Kwon said of the team's sorceress-themed routine. "Sorcerers are women, so we were just trying to be ourselves and show the world what we can do."
Fuentes and other USA coaches were pumping their fists before the scores were announced. Their biggest hopes were fulfilled: Team USA received 271.3166 points for the acrobatic routine to take the total to 914.3421 points.
They had earlier received 282.7567 points for their technical routine, which put them in fourth place on the first night and got into medal positions with their high-difficulty free routine, which earned them 360.2688 points.
"The acrobatics, we've really enjoyed this new event. It's felt like a strength for us where we could feel confident," Alvarez told Olympics.com afterwards. "This new routine, there's a part of each of our heart and soul in it. We choreographed it together, this group of athletes and coaches, so it was a really special ending for us."
The team from the People’s Republic of China, silver medallists at Tokyo 2020, scored top marks in all three routines to win their first-ever gold medal at an Olympic Games with a total of 996.1389 points. Spain finished third with 900.7319 points to earn their first Olympic medal in the sport since London 2012.
Team USA performed their technical routine to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal."
The Fuentes Factor and the resurgence of Team USA
Fuentes was part of the Spanish team at the London 2012 Olympics. Twelve years later, she was poolside, swarmed by jubilant USA swimmers who crowded their coach so much upon realising that they won a medal that she toppled to the ground, laughing.
Fuentes is known in the swimming world not only for her coaching skills, but also her humanity. Two cases represent this best — when she included Bill May, who was then 44, on the team roster for the Fukuoka 2023 World Aquatics Championships, and when she dove into the pool to rescue Alvarez during the world championships in 2022.
Alvarez had fainted at the end of her free solo routine and was then banned from competitions over concerns for her health. Fuentes successfully fought to reinstate the artistic swimmer by calling in a cardiologist who had worked with the US Marines and running medical tests on Alvarez to prove that she was in good health.
"She was my Olympic idol that I grew up watching on YouTube," Alvarez said of Fuentes. "To have her here coaching with us and having been through so much, just missing out on qualifying in Tokyo, the incident that happened in Budapest in 2022 with me and her. She saved me, and so many things in between. She's more than just a coach. She's a mentor, and she's taught me so much about life."
While Spanish by nationality, Fuentes was emotional to be the one who led the USA team back to the Olympic podium. The team's gold-medal result at Atlanta 1996 was one of the biggest inspirations for her own sports career.
"I remember my first Olympics. Actually, I lost against the US in that 2004, the bronze medal. And I was like, 'I really want to bring the US back', because the US is who inspired me when I was a kid because they were on the top," Fuentes said. "They changed my life because when I saw them on TV in Atlanta 96, I really wanted to be that. And I became that. And then I was like, 'Now, I want to give back.' And look at it here — the circle is closed."
Once dominant in artistic swimming, Team USA had not made the Olympic podium in the sport in 20 years until breaking that streak at Paris 2024.
A moment for Team USA and Bill May in Paris
In line with her focus on diversity, such as including the comparatively shorter Kwon on the roster, Fuentes has also given multiple chances to May, one of the pioneers of the sport. The veteran swimmer competed on Team USA at two world championships, helping them take silver in the acrobatic routine at the world championships in 2023 and a bronze at the 2024 edition in Doha.
The Paris 2024 Games were the first time that men were eligible to compete in what was previously an all-female sport. While May was ultimately not included on the team, the 45-year-old was in the stands to cheer on his teammates, along with other athletes who had swam for Team USA but did not make the cut for Paris 2024.
"We saw him right after we came out, after getting our scores. He was there and he gave me a big old hug," Alvarez said. "His energy and his smile and his passion for the sport is just contagious, and he's been such a such a huge part of this journey of this team, just like the other three members who aren't here as well, who have been a part of qualifying our team. It's so special to have them up in the stands as well."