A small step for man, a giant leap for inclusion. But it went to waste. From this year on, it is possible for men to participate in artistic swimming at the Olympics: in reality, however, it turned out to be a missed opportunity, as only women have registered for the 80 spots available for the various national teams.
Not a single male participant in this discipline was selected. Neither the Italian Giorgio Minisini, who abandoned competitive swimming due to disappointment, nor the unfortunate Bill May, an American who waited 34 years to perform in an Olympic pool, he who was the pioneer of synchronized swimming (which has become known as artistic swimming), transforming a sport that was destined for only one half of the sky until his stunning appearance.
In fact, none of the countries, from Australia to the USA, from Spain to the home team France, selected a male swimmer: a clear indication. Italy, for its part, which had Minisini as one of the discipline’s top champions, decided without much regret to leave the multi-time world champion at home. “The Paris Olympics could have been historic for artistic swimming,” Minisini said to ANSA, “and instead, they will be like all the others.” The former athlete expressed his disappointment over “the choice, by all national teams, not to bring any male athlete: it shows that so far there has been no willingness to change and make this sport truly mixed.”
Yet, there were open applause for that decision announced by World Aquatics in December 2022, celebrated as revolutionary. The American swimmer, who after retiring from competition in 2015, with the okay for men at the World Championships, had jumped back into the pool winning 5 world titles, rejoiced. At 45, with the sacred fire of Olympia still blazing, he wanted to be in Paris to take another piece of history. However, Team USA denied him this opportunity, excluding him from the national team last June. A technical choice, because as admitted by the responsible for synchronized swimming in the stars and stripes, Adam Andrasko, “men are not yet up to the level of women,” not even someone like May who has always trained with the girls. “It’s a false opening. The teams have been formed for a long time, so no nation will want to bet on a less prepared guy,” Frenchman Quentin Rakotomalala, bronze medalist at the 2022 European Championships in Rome, had already forecasted in January. “Boys have had access to the highest competitions only since 2015,” explained Sylvie Neuville, the technical manager of the French federation. “They have a technical delay that risks penalizing them, and no country has wanted to take this risk. There was no intention to deliberately exclude them. On the contrary, as soon as we work with the boys, it’s like yin and yang, we feel a better harmony in a team.”
The excluded individuals do not think so. “If you really want to transform this discipline,” added Minisini, “you need to start working from August 12, 2024, and not 2026. After 9 years of attempts, starting in 2015, we can no longer wait. But I am not sure that this world wants to change.
If there was a will, I would certainly do my part to contribute as much as possible. But fighting for the good of a sport that does not want to improve risks being useless.
All athletes, whether women or men, have something to gain. I hope those who come after us can live a better experience, in a discipline that is truly integrated. I will watch the competitions of my teammates and cheer for them. And I will also try to help understand a regulation – concluded Minisini – that is certainly not clear and misleading for those who do not closely follow this sport.”
The conversation may resume, perhaps in Los Angeles 2028, too late for Bill May, who helped make a great leap in male synchronized swimming: but only up to the door of the Olympics.