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First ever Mixed Duet Free, Bill May (USA), after winning the first ever Mixed Gold in the Technical, settles for Silver in the Free, with Kristina Lum-Underwood, just .2666 behind the Russians.
Bill May and Kristina Lum-Underwood (courtesy of Simone-Castrovillari)
Synchro News Courtesy of USA Synchro
Bill May (Cicero, N.Y.) added to his medal haul Thursday, taking silver in the mixed duet free with 2000 Olympian Kristina Lum Underwood (Las Vegas, Nev.) at the FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia.
May and Lum Underwood scored 91.4667 points in the final, just .2667 points behind the winning Russian duo of Aleksandr Maltsev and Darina Valitova (91.7333).
“It’s been an honor to be here and competing among the world’s best,” May said. “I think this is a turning point for synchronized swimming.”
May and Christina Jones (Fremont, Calif.), a 2008 Olympian, won the first mixed duet free gold medal in a FINA-sanctioned event on Sunday.
Team USA’s Anita Alvarez (Kenmore, N.Y.) and 2012 Olympian Mariya Koroleva (Concord, Calif.) finished 11th in the women’s duet free final, scoring 84.9667 points. Russia’s Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina won their second duet gold medal at the World Championships, finishing with 98.2000 points.
The U.S. will compete in the team free final today at 10:30 a.m. (ET). UniversalSports.com will live stream the final starting at 10:20 a.m., and Universal Sports Network will provide delay coverage at 6 p.m.
The U.S. team members who will compete in the team free final are: Anita Alvarez (Kenmore, N.Y.); Claire Barton (Los Gatos, Calif.); Mary Killman (McKinney, Texas); Mariya Koroleva (Concord, Calif.); Isabel Malcolmson (Saratoga, Calif.); Sandra Ortellado (Walnut Creek, Calif.); Karensa Tjoa (San Jose, Calif.); and Alison Williams (Northridge, Calif.).
For more on the FINA World Championships, go to http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Synchronized-Swimming/Events/USA-Synchro-National-Events/2015/July/24/FINA-World-Championships.
About USA Synchro
USA Synchro was established as a nonprofit organization in 1977, and is the United States national governing body for the sport, recognized by the International Olympic Committee, the United States Olympic Committee and FINA (Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur) – the international governing federation. USA Synchro organizes, participates in, and promotes a variety of competitive events each year. These events begin at the local level and continue in the following categories: Senior (15 & O), Junior (15-18), Junior Olympic (19 & U), Collegiate and Masters (20+).
I have never understood why the Olympics wasn’t the entire summer. It’s once ever 4 years. Why not make it huge? It’s better for the host city. You can expand into more sports. Sports can expand their lineups. I think being locked into 16 days is absurd. (On personal note, I think it would be fun to live in a beautiful host city for 90 days)
Am I off-base? Does the Olympics need to be 16 days? Limited? Does that make is more meaningful?
SIDE NOTE: Bill May is such a star. I can’t watch him without getting teary-eyed. His backstory, his journey to Worlds medals inspires me. “Never Give Up” has a new twist with synchro glory.
Amen to what you wrote about Bill, Mel. Amen to that in spades.
FINA should end their sexist policy that bars men from most synchronized swimming events! As this video shows, men can be just as elegant as females.
My friend Benoit was 4th in this event with former World Champion Virginie Dedieu as his duet partner, so I know how hard synchro swimmers work. Bill and Benoit were teammates in Santa Clara, and they trained 8-10 hours a day six days a week, eyes wide open in chlorinated water, even knowing that they never had a shot to go to Worlds, or the Olympics. Bill and Kristina won four national titles together and Bill was USA Synchro Athlete of the Year in 1998 and 1999 but US Synchro wouldn’t even lobby on his behalf to try and petition to get him to be allowed to compete in the Olympics.
So Benoit, Bill, and Kristina did about the… Read more »
This makes me sad. The fools in charge of the Olympics eliminate wrestling, but keep pentathalon and add synchro stuff like this and diving. Those aren’t sports. Put them in a show.
I think some sporting events should remain at the world championships (of each sport) while other events should remain at the olympics. I don,t think the IOC should remove some events from the olympics schedule just to add new events because if you remove an event, some athletes will miss out.
In aquatics, events like mixed synchronized diving, mixed relays in swimming and mixed synchronized swimming should remain at the world aquatics championships and not be added to the olympics.
In track and field, the 4 by 800 and 4 by 1500 relays have been added at the (IAAF world relays). These two relays are not part of the IAAF world championships but are part of a special relay event… Read more »
I agree but how do they add it to the Olympics programme. There are already too many events in the Olympics especially in aquatics.
They also added mixed synchronized diving and mixed relays in swimming at the world championships.
How do they fix all these into the schedule at the Olympics and other sports may also have new events being added to their own schedules eg more weight classes in women,s wrestling.
Carlo, your questions and concerns are spot on. I don’t have an answer. Do we keep adding and adding and adding events until the Olympics are a month long? Do we remove some sporting events in order to add new ones? I am glad that athletes like Bill May can finally showcase their talent to the world.
If figure skating can have pairs, then there is no reason synchro cannot have mixed pairs. Bill’s strength was incredible which allowed Christina to go beyond what she could have done with a female partner. Amazing. Absolutely amazing to watch.