Team ROC wins 2020 Olympic gold in artistic swimming duet free routine

TOKYO, August 4. /TASS/. Russian synchronized swimmers Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Svetlana Romashina won gold on Wednesday at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in artistic swimming duet free routine. Judges awarded the Russian pair of Kolesnichenko and Romashina 195.9079 points for their performance. The silver went to the pair of Chinese athletes Xuechen Huang and Wenyan Sun (192.4499 points), while the bronze was grabbed by the duo of Ukrainian synchronized swimmers of Marta Fedina and Anastasia Savchuk (189.4620 points). This is 6th straight gold of Russian synchro swimmers in the Olympic duet free routine. Romashina, 31, is now the world’s most titled synchronized swimmer as she boasts six Olympic gold medals and she is the 21-time winner of the world championships and 13-time winner of the European championships. Kolesnichenko, 27, is a two-time Olympic champion, 16-time world champion and 11-time European champion. As of today, the Russian national team of athletes in Tokyo - participating as Team ROC (the Russian Olympic Committee) due to international sanctions against Russian sports - boasts 14 gold, 21 silver and 18 bronze medals. Team ROC is currently 6th in the overall medals count. The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Japan’s capital of Tokyo are being held this year between July 23 and August 8. In March 2020, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to postpone the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan for one year due to the spread of COVID-19. Russia at Tokyo-2020 On July 6, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) published an approved list of 335 athletes, who were selected to represent the country at the Summer Olympic Games. The Olympic delegation of Russian athletes in Tokyo includes 185 female and 150 male athletes. Russian athletes are competing in Tokyo under the flag and logo of the Russian National Olympic Committee (ROC) instead of the Russian national flag and state emblem. The national anthem of Russia is also under sanctions at the Olympics in Japan. Sanctions against Russian sports On December 17, 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland’s Lausanne partially upheld WADA’s (the World Anti-Doping Agency) previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports. Following the CAS decision, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia for a two-year period. The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for the organization of all international sports tournaments for a period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022. Read more