Artistic Swimming Explained

tic swimming is a hybrid form of swimming, gymnastics, and dance consisting of swimmers performing a synchronised routine of complex and dynamic underwater movements (known as figures) and arm movements in the water accompanied by music.

Athletes need to be comfortable in the water and demonstrate outstanding fitness both in and out. Artistic swimmers are known to be some of the fittest athletes in the world!

Imagine running a race but holding your breath while doing it. Athletes need to practice:

  • Swimming
  • Strength
  • Agility
  • Ballet/Dance choreography
  • Flexibility
  • Balance
  • Coordination
  • Speed

These individual routines are called figures and are typically movements between one or more of the 19 basic artistic swimming positions. Most figures also involve the swimmer holding their legs out of the water.

Common Artistic Swimming
Terminology		 Can Boys Compete in Artistic
Swimming?		 Click here to view FINA’s Artistic Swimming Rules
with diagrams of each position and figure.

 

Figures, competitions, and technical elements

Junior competitions hold figures competitions in which swimmers are judged on their execution of four pre-determined artistic swimming moves.

There is no music for figure competitions; they are simply a case of how well the swimmer performs the movements. The scores from the figures are then carried over and combined with free routine scores to determine overall rankings. In senior competitions, swimmers must perform certain combinations of figures, called elements. In a technical routine, part of a swimmer’s score is based on their performance of these elements.