What changes the result
The rules behind the moments commentators get excited about. They build on the beginner rules.
I · Intermediate · 7 rules · Step 2 of 4The routines
- How many swimmers are in an artistic swimming team, and can a reserve be swapped in?A team has four to eight swimmers, and eight at the Olympic Games.
- How long is an artistic swimming routine, and what happens if it runs over?Between 2 minutes for a solo technical routine and 3 minutes 30 seconds for a team free routine, with five seconds allowed either way.
Judging and results
- What is a base mark in artistic swimming, and why does it sink a routine's score?A base mark is the lowest difficulty value an element can have.
- What happens if a team gets a required element wrong in a technical routine?The element scores nothing.
- How are swimmers who are out of time with each other penalised?Every unequal action is counted and taken off the elements score: 0.1 of a point for a small error, 0.5 for an obvious one and 3.0 for a major one.
- Can artistic swimmers touch the bottom of the pool?No.
- Who reaches the final in artistic swimming, and who swims last?The twelve best from a preliminary go to the final, where they swim in reverse order: twelfth first and the leader last.