China aim to dominate in artistic swimming at the World Aquatics Championships
SINGAPORE – For over two decades, Russia's artistic swimmers were the best in the world. From 1998 to 2019, they dominated the discipline, topping the medals table at every edition of the World Aquatics Championships, achieving a clean sweep of golds on three occasions.
But then came the Covid-19 pandemic, disrupting the sporting world and unsettling the established order. The 2021 World Aquatics Championships were pushed to 2022 to avoid clashing with the postponed Tokyo Olympics, and by the time competition resumed, the artistic swimming landscape had begun to shift.
Normalcy returned to many sports, but not to Russia. In March 2022, Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from World Aquatics competitions due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Their absence cracked open the door for Asian nations to surge through, with China rising to the fore. And the top dogs look set to dominate again at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
Though China first tasted world title success in 2017, when they claimed the free routine combination gold in Budapest, Chinese head coach Zhang Xiaohuan believes that the 2022 championships were the turning point as they clinched golds in the Olympic events for the first time.
'I really believe it inspired the whole country,' said Zhang, a former world championship medallist, in an interview with Inside Synchro in 2023.
'Finally, Chinese athletes were standing on the top of the podium. And the ones who did, they experienced this feeling, so this will help them to work harder, to fight because they want to get the gold medal again, and to inspire the younger athletes.'
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Since then, China's momentum has grown. They topped the artistic swimming standings in 2022 with four golds, then finished behind Japan and Spain at the 2023 edition in Fukuoka.
By 2024, they reclaimed the top spot in Doha, winning seven of the 11 events they entered. Canada, Greece, Italy, and Kazakhstan each took one gold.
When the artistic swimming competition kicks off at the WCH Arena on July 18, China, who won historic duet and team golds at the Paris Olympics, are again favourites in the team events after a stellar World Cup campaign.
They capped their preparations by dominating the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup 2025 Super Final in Xi'an, sweeping all the team titles and winning seven golds on home soil.
Twins Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi, who won the duet and team golds in Paris, are missing from the squad, but China can tap on other talents.
One of their brightest prospects is Xu Huiyan, 19, who claimed five gold medals at the Super Final.
'We're currently in a transition period with veteran and new athletes working together,' said Olympic champion Chang Hao to World Aquatics during the Super Final.
'There are still some integration and coordination issues to work through. That's why we need more time to refine our teamwork before we can perform at our best. But honestly, after seven months of intensive closed-door training, we've already shown significant improvement.'
Other nations poised to contend for podium places include Spain, now led by coach Andrea Fuentes – a three-time Olympic silver medallist – who returns after leading the United States to a historic team silver at the 2024 Paris Games.
The Spaniards have had strong showings at the World Cup in 2025, topping the medal charts at the Paris, Egypt and Canada stops and claiming the team technical title in all three events.
Britain's Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe are also strong prospects, having made history with the nation's first Olympic medal in artistic swimming at the Paris Games.
They also were the first Britons to win a duet medal at the world championships in 2024, when they clinched a silver and a bronze.
Austria's Alexandri triplets – Anna-Maria, Eirini, and Vasiliki – will also be ones to watch.
Now coached by Japan's former national team head Nakajima Tatako, they have shown impressive form this season: Anna-Maria and Eirini won the duet technical title at the 2025 European Championships in June, while Vasiliki returned after an 11-month break to take bronze in the solo technical at the World Cup in Markham, Canada.
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