Russian synchronized swimmers Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina took their fourth Olympic gold medals and defended their 2012 duet title on Tuesday, out-scoring their nearest competitors by 2.6222 points.
Ishchenko and Romashina’s “mermaid” themed routine earned them 98.5333 points, combining with their technical program from Tuesday to win the gold with 194.9910 total points. They became the second Russian pair to repeat as duet champions, as countrywomen Anastasia Ermakova and Anastasia Davydova won in both 2004 and 2008.
“The most difficult thing was carrying on preparations as if nothing was happening, when we thought we might be excluded from the Games [following the McLaren Report]. But thankfully, we were allowed to come here,” said Ischenko.
The two Russians led after the preliminaries, and completed a challenging ‘mermaid’ routine in the finals that received uniformly high marks, pushing back the Chinese, who put on a technically impressive performance.
“We are often compared to mermaids, and have long thought about a mermaid routine. After all we do spend more time inside the water than outside it. But it’s hard to be a mermaid without a tail,” said Ischenko. “But we managed it.”
These are the fourth Olympic golds for both synchronized swimmers. As well as the duet’s gold medals in Rio and London, Ischenko and Romashina have two team competition first places from 2012 and Beijing 2008. The two are expected to compete for the same honor in Rio later this week.