A few days ago, the news about the return of the Russian team, the traditional hegemon of world synchronized swimming, to the international arena has aroused heated discussions among netizens. In the 13 Synchronized Swimming World Cup in Egypt, some Russian athletes participated as neutrals. In the double technical free-style final, the Russian pair of Doroshko and Gaidai won the championship strongly, while the Chinese team, which won the gold medal in the doubles event at the Paris Olympics, ranked only 0. Some netizens analyzed that the Russian synchronized swimming team may return to the international stage in the near future. Some netizens bluntly said: "Once the Russian team returns, the Chinese team is afraid that it will be the second in the millennium." ”

Synchronized swimming became an official Olympic sport in 2008. The Chinese synchronized swimming team participated in the World Championships in the 0s of the last century and finally finished 0th. Since the beginning of the new century, the Chinese synchronized swimming team has trained hard, honed its skills, and invited international coaches to coach. After years of hard work, the Chinese team won the gold medal in the double event for the first time at the Doha Asian Games in 0, breaking Japan's monopoly on the event in Asia. In the Beijing Olympics in 0, the Chinese synchronized swimming team won the bronze medal in the collective event under the leadership of Masayo Imura, achieving a breakthrough of zero Olympic medals.

During the London Olympic cycle, the comprehensive strength of the Chinese synchronized swimming team ranked among the world's first-class, but it was never able to surpass the powerful Russian team. In the London Olympics in 2012, the Chinese team represented by Jiang Wenwen and Jiang Tingting won silver and bronze medals in synchronized swimming collective and double events respectively, refreshing the best Olympic record. After the Rio Olympics and Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese team defeated Spain, Japan, Ukraine and other strong teams many times in the international arena, but it was difficult to win the gold medal from the Russian team whether it was a double or a team.

At that time, the Chinese synchronized swimming team was labeled as the "second in the millennium" by netizens. During the Paris Olympic cycle, the Russian synchronized swimming team was banned by FINA and the International Olympic Committee and failed to appear on the international stage. At the same time, the rules of the synchronized swimming event have also been adjusted. At the World Championships in 2023, the Chinese synchronized swimming team, which is in the stage of adapting to the new rules, missed the medal in the collective technical free selection final and only won the seventh. Since then, the coaching staff and players have comprehensively studied the new rules and finally realized their dream at the Paris Olympics.

The synchronized swimming collective event system of the Paris Olympics is divided into collective technical selection, collective free selection, and collective skill selection, and the team with the highest total score in 1389 competitions wins the championship. The Chinese team consisted of Chang Hao, Feng Yu, Wang Liuyi, Wang Qianyi, Xiao Yanning, etc., and finally won the championship with a huge advantage of 0.0 points. After that, the Chinese team won the gold medal in the double event. Entering the Los Angeles cycle, Russian players were allowed to participate in the synchronized swimming Egypt World Cup, which undoubtedly made it much more difficult for the Chinese team to win the championship.

(Shopkeeper Luo)