Male swimmers will now have their time at the Olympics, a new record in Olympic history. Men are now given all the rights to participate in artistic swimming teams.
The new rules now allow “up to two men from each country to compete in the team competition, with the presence of teams of eight athletes,” according to the NBC Olympics.
The rule change for the synchronized swimming game was first published by the Associated Press in July last year at the World Aquatics Championships.
Artistic swimming, first introduced as synchronized swimming at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, only permits women to engage in the sport.
While men have been given the opportunity to only compete in lower-level artistic swimming competitions, they were initially excluded from Olympic teams.
No men were selected for any of the artistic swim teams despite the rule change, and they will not compete at the Paris Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed in March 2023 that the 2024 Paris Games will achieve numerical gender parity despite the absence of men in artistic swimming teams, with 5,250 men and 5,250 women among the 10,500 athletes participating.