Aquatic sports include Diving, Swimming, Synchronized Swimming and Water Polo.
In Diving, points are given for elegance and skill. The score is adjusted by the dive’s degree of difficulty.
Freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly races are held in Swimming. The four styles are used in the individual medley. The relay races four x 100 meters freestyle, four x 200 meters freestyle, and four x 100 meters medley complete the programme.
During Synchronized Swimming presentations - an Olympic sport exclusive to women - the athletes perform in a series of exercises that are executed simultaneously, and judged on whether they meet technical and artistic specifications.
Finally, in Water Polo two teams try to throw the ball into their adversary’s goal. During the game, players cannot touch the bottom or the sides of the pool, which results in some competitors swimming more than five kilometers in a single game.
The Aquatic Marathon is an open water event, in which the athletes compete for the gold medal in a ten-kilometre course. It was introduced into the Olympic Programme at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
