OLYMPIC HISTORY

From London in 1948 to Mexico City, synchronised swimming stayed afloat in the Olympic pool as an exhibition sport. It did not achieve full status until Los Angeles in 1984 and is only open to women despite occasional campaigns to allow men a go at raising a leg aloft in the pool. The individual event has been dropped from the programme, since synchronicity was confined to woman and music and not fellow competitor and was rather less spectacular to watch than the team event. In Sydney there will be two events, the duet and the team, consisting of eight women per qualifying nation.

Until 1998, the United States and Canada had won every gold and silver medal possible at all leading international meets. However, the retirement of many of their star performers after the 1996 Games in Atlanta left them vulnerable to challenge as the rest of the world started to catch up. Russia and Japan took the lead at the 1998 world championships and could all challenge for titles in Sydney. Others on the up and up are France, China and Italy.