USA Completes Olympic Test Event in France

The 2^nd stop of the 2024 World Cup concluded in Paris where Team USA had the opportunity to compete in the same pool they will see at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, giving them valuable experience and insight into what to expect in the future.

Not only did the National Federation utilize this event as an opportunity to prepare themselves for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the stars and stripes followed the same strategy as well. “We will use this as an opportunity to test athletes to make sure we really select the best eight, who will represent the US in the Olympic Games” shares Head Coach Andrea Fuentes, “This means we are going to test different athletes in each event and meet. This is a great opportunity for us to adapt to the most recent changes as quickly as possible and challenge ourselves.”

Team USA competed in multiple different categories, including an exciting return of Anita Alvarez’s Solo performance, utilizing 11 members from their well-rounded roster to experiment with the different combinations.

MENS SOLO

Kenny Gaudet

Kenny Gaudet set the tone for USA receiving a score of 197.4216 in the Men’s Solo Technical final on the opening day of competition. Gaudet entered the competition with the highest declared difficulty and executed a base mark-free routine, which lead to the podium receiving a silver medal.

Leading into the Solo Free event feeling confident, Gaudet performed another clean swim receiving a score of 161.6187 with only falling points away from receiving the highest artistic impression out of all the other competitors. Once again, the young athlete found himself on the podium receiving a bronze medal.

DUET TECH

Duet 1:Anita Alvarez & Megumi Field, Duet 2: Jaime Czarkowski & Ruby Remati

Jamie Czarkowski and Ruby Remati were the first of two duets to take stage at the World Cup swimming to a new routine since the last duet performance at the Pan American Games. The duo received full credit for their routine and placed 5^th overall due to their combination of high difficulty and artistic impression.

Anita Alvarez and Megumi Field followed performing the same routine as their teammates but received base marks lowering their declared difficulty and placing them farther down in the overall rankings.

TEAM TECH

Keana Hunter, Megumi Field, Jacklyn Luu, Daniella Ramirez, Jamie Czarlowski, Bill May, Audrey Kwon, Ruby Remati

USA opened the Team category bringing their Michael Jackson energy to the stage in the Team Technical Routine. While the team had ambitions of declaring a high difficulty, they received penalties that dropped their routine in the rankings receiving an overall score of 194.3211

DUET FREE

Duet 1: Jaime Czarkowski & Megumi Field | Duet 2: Anita Alvarez & Ruby Remati

Megumi Field and Jaime Czarkowski were first to compete in the Duet Free competition out of the USA’s two total duets, receiving a score of 208.7020 with deductions on their declared difficulty finishing in 6^th place due to their artistic impression and execution scores.

Several draws later, a new pair Anita Alvarez and Ruby Remati performed a similar routine receiving a total score of 141.0584 due to base marks found in their routine.

FREE TEAM

Audrey Kwon, Jamie Czarkowski, Ruby Remati, Bill May, Megumi Field, Daniella Ramirez, Natalia Vega, and Jacklyn Luu

One of the highlights of the weekend took place during the Free Team routine for the USA, receiving the first ever 10 point mark in the new system from the judges during their first acrobatic element of the routine. Not only did the team ‘awe’ the crowd with their incredible height out of the water, but with their artistry from their water themed routine led them to receive the highest artistic impression out of all teams participating. Overall, USA received a score of 213.0085 lowering their declared difficulty due to errors made in their routine.

WOMEN SOLO

Anita Alvarez

An exciting welcome back occurred in Paris when Anita Alvarez took stage in the Solo category for the first time in several years. Alvarez and Andrea Fuentes felt inspired after World Championships to experiment with creative choreography in the new system while still maintaining Alvarez’s personal artistic flare and swimming style. Together they created a routine that captured the essence of the human experience and embracing our individual struggles and imperfections. Many were thrilled to see the, soon to be, 3x Olympian in center stage despite her past experiences.

Alvarez ended in 4^th place with a score of 215.7707.

ACROBATIC

Jacklyn Luu, Audrey Kwon, Jaime Czarkowski, Ruby Remati, Daniella Ramirez, Anita Alvarez, Megumi Field, Bill May

USA topped off the weekend with the fan-favorite amazon themed acrobatic routine. Due to some penalties made by competitor, China, they were able to secure the podium for a bronze medal with a score of 243.9366 on the final day of competition at the Olympic venue.

The Team will continue with their tour of the World Cup with their next stop in Markham, Canada while they continue to perfect their roster and routines for the Olympic games coming up in three short months.