New name and ruling changes to an aquatic sport debuts at Paris 2024 Olympics

An old Olympic sport will debut its new name and judging system this year at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Artistic swimming, formerly known as synchronized swimming, has changed its name to save some confusion surrounding the sport.

Vanessa Kennan, the Edmonton Auroras head coach, told CTV News Edmonton that the previous name didn't reflect the state of the aquatic sport.

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"'Synchronized' implies that everybody's going to do something together. There are solos, which is one swimmer – how is that synchronized swimming? If there's two swimmers, same thing," Kennan said.

"Justifying that they're synchronized with the music just wasn't cutting it, so they figured artistic swimming kind of captures the artistry of what everyone's doing in the pool."

Not only has the name of the sport changed, but the judging process has also made a few updates.

Coaches are required to submit their routine on a "coach card" with the difficulty level of the routine. The coach card will be viewed by technical controllers who make sure the team is completing all the movements and stunts on the card while recording the individual swimmers mistakes should they occur.

Routine scores get averaged by judges and higher difficulty routines get an added multiplier to the score, meaning teams can score higher with a harder performance with some mistakes rather than a simple, cleaner routine based on the judges' calculations.

There are no artistic swimmers from Edmonton on the Canadian team.

The Paris 2024 Olympic games begins on Friday and will run until Aug. 11.