Synchronized Swimming - Rules

FINA or Federation Internationale de Natation or (International Swimming Federation) is the governing body for synchronized swimming. FINA is recognized by international Olympic Committee (IOC) for administration and control over international competitions on aquatics. Its head office is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Currently, there are five aquatics competitions which are held during Summer Olympics. These include swimming, spaning, water polo, open water swimming, and synchronized swimming. FINA looks after all these competitions. On 24 July 2009, Jupo Magpone of Uruguay was elected as FINA president.

Some of the important rules of synchronized swimming are as follows −

Before participating in the Olympics, the swimmers must clear the quapfying competitions

If we focus on Olympics, there are only two events played in each Olympics i.e. team and duet

There are two routines included here one is free routine and one is technical routine

Players can perform both in team and duets

Technical routine is predetermined and should be performed strictly according to certain elements

Free routine is not predetermined so the players are free to do their performance and in free routine, they have to show their creativity in choreography, dancing, and coordination

In duet event, there are two swimmers and one alternate swimmer. In free routine, the time pmit is 3:30 minutes and in technical routine time pmit is 2:20 minutes

In team event, there are eight swimmers and one alternate swimmer. Time pmit in free routine is 4:00 minutes and 2:50 minutes in technical routine

In each event, there is relaxation of utmost 15 seconds

The judges give points according to the level of difficulty of the performance shown by the players

Marks awarded ranges from 0.0 to 10.0