Four-time world gold medalist Giorgio Minisini announced he’s retiring after no man was picked to compete in Paris 2024 synchronised swimming out of 96 athletes.
No men will compete in synchronised swimming at the Olympics, despite Paris 2024 vowing to be the first gender-equal edition in the history of the Games.
The 96 athletes picked by 18 different nations for the Olympics were all women.
In 2022, World Aquatics changed the rules, allowing up to two men to be selected in an eight-athlete synchronised swimming squad.
“World Aquatics is very disappointed that no male artistic swimmers have been selected for Paris 2024” they told Euronews in a statement.
“This should have been a landmark moment for the sport. We understand that it would always be a challenge for men to earn a spot on a team in time for Paris 2024, considering that their eligibility was only confirmed 18 months ago, but we were still hopeful that some would succeed.”
Neither World Aquatics nor the International Olympic Committee have a say on the picks, as they are always decided by the individual national federations.
With no men picked for Paris, four-time world gold medalist Giorgio Minisini said he was competing for the last time at age 28.
“Obsession is a young man’s game,” Minisini, who was left off the Italian Olympic team in April, wrote on his Instagram account Tuesday.
Minisini and Bill May of the US were the two most likely Olympic pioneers aiming to be picked for Paris as the first men to compete in artistic swimming.
The sport debuted at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as synchronised swimming.
Minisini specialises in the mixed duet event, which is not yet on the Olympic program and missed selection for the team event.
May was on the US team that won silver and bronze medals in team acrobatic routine at the past two world championships. At age 45, he did not make the Olympic team last month.
“All of us in the artistic swimming community need to work even harder to progress opportunities for male athletes in the sport,” said World Aquatics, which hopes to add a mixed duet event for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Women’s Olympic participation more than doubled in 40 years
Back in March, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said they’d set a 50/50 quota for men and women to compete in the Games.
“We are about to celebrate one of the most important moments in the history of women at the Olympic Games, and in sport overall,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.
Women’s participation at the Olympics has more than doubled over the past 40 years, from 22.9% at the 1984 Los Angeles games to 50% at the Paris 2024 ones.
In this year’s summer games, 28 out of 32 sports will be fully gender equal, the IOC said.
There will also be “a more gender-balanced number of medal events, with 152 women’s events, 157 men’s events and 20 mixed-gender events.”