Just as in the duet, the Russian women had dominated in artistic swimming’s (known prior to 2017 as synchronized swimming) team event. At the Olympics, they had not lost a competition since its 1996 début, when the Americans had captured gold. In Tokyo the Russians would compete under the banner of “Russian Olympic Committee athletes”, as Russia had been banned from competing under its own flag due to its large-scale doping programs. To understand the scope of Russia’s dominance at the World and European Championships, one needed only to look at the career of their star Svetlana Romashina, who had earned 21 world and 13 European titles since 2005, never finishing lower than first. China, meanwhile, had a history as runner-up at these tournaments that was almost as strong as Russia’s winning streak.
Competition in the team event was tighter than it had been in the duet, but the Russians still came out on top in both the technical and free routine portions of the tournament. China was not far behind, however, and came in a very close second overall. The bronze medal went to Ukraine, who had earlier won their first medal in the sport by coming in third in the duet, while the defending bronze medalists from Japan were able to manage only fourth.
