Technical Merit Standards for Judging and Scoring Olympic Synchronized Swimming

Added: 01/03/2006

It seems like the simplest event in the Olympic Games, but there is more to synchronized swimming than what emerges on the surface. As well as challenging power, stamina, plasticity, elegance and artistic abilities, it demands excellent breath control. Extraordinary, but very important, tools help the females keep the illusion of simplicity, no easy task taking into consideration they carry out arduous moves upside down and underwater while holding their breath. The ability to perform such twists and turns earn high marks in technical merit. A nose clip averts water from coming into the nose, letting the swimmers to stay underwater for a long time.

Judging and Scoring Olympic Synchronized Swimming: most essentially, an underwater speaker enables the swimmers to hear the music well when underwater, helping them to reach the split-second timing decisive to synchronized swimming and all important when looking for high marks in technical merit. Initially recognized as water ballet, synchronized swimming commenced in Canada in the 1920s. It extended to the USA in the early '30s, where a show at the 1934 Chicago World's Fair attracted admiring articles. Its popularity rose further when Esther Williams gave a performance in a string of MGM "aqua musicals" in the 1940s and '50s.

The Olympic format includes two routine events - technical routine and free routine.
The technical routine has required elements that have got to be done in a series. Teams can select their own music and add extra choreography but cannot carry out the elements out of order. Time duration is 2:50.

In the free routine, there are no limitations as to the selection of a piece of music and choreography. The routine duration cannot be any longer than 5 minutes, + or - 15 seconds. The deck-work time maximum value is 10 seconds.

Regarding judging, a panel of 10 judges will give points from 0 to 10 in one-tenth-point augmentations. Five judges will give points for Technical Merit, which includes synchronization, execution and difficulty, and five judges for Artistic Impression.

And finally, a few words regarding technical merit. The technical merit grade has 3 key components:

a. Execution: The excellence of swimming stroking, forward motion methods, figures and passages, and the accuracy of styles.

b. Synchronization: The aptitude to go one with the other and to shift with the music.

c. Difficulty: The quantity of airborne weight expanded above the surface of the water, the difficulty and variety of the moves, the force necessary, the duration of time moves take, principally underwater point in time, and their position in the routine, and the difficulty of pattern modifications and synchronization.

The judging for synchronized swimming bears a resemblance to the judging for figure-skating. Two panels of 5 judges evaluate a performance, one panel considering technical merit and the other measuring artistic impression. In both instances, every judge gives a point out of possible 10.

Other areas include artistic impression which has 3 key elements:

Choreography: The diversity and originality of the moves, switches, flexibility, style and the use of the swimming pool.

Music Interpretation: The use of movement to elucidate the melody, its dynamic and rhythmic properties.

Manner of Presentation: The carriage with which the routine is performed, the aptitude to commune thru the choreography, and the apparent easiness of the presentations.

The highest and lowest of the points given in every category are canceled and the remaining points are averaged. The technical merit total sum is multiplied by 6 and the Artistic Impression point by 4. The total sum of these 2 is equivalent to the final routine point. At some point in competition, a contestant will swim the opening free routine, the technical routine, and a final free routine. The opening free routine, weighted to 65% and technical routine point weighted to 35% decide the event's finalists.

In the finals, the opening free routine point is substituted by the closing free routine points. The final free and technical routine points are then counted and added to attain the complete final points.

Penalties also play a part in the scoring. Penalties between 1 and 2 points, though rarely measured, may be managed by the Referee for fouls. One-Point Penalty Deductions are as follows:

? Surpassing the time limit of 10 seconds for deck moves.

? Digressing from the particular time maximum allowance for a routine.

Two-Point Penalty Deductions are thee following:

? A swimmer making intentional usage of the swimming pool bottom during a routine.

? A swimmer making intentional usage of the swimming pool bottom during a routine to help another swimmer(s).

Half-Point Penalty Deductions include:

? A compulsory constituent is missing in a Technical Routine.

The order of swimming includes the sequence of swim for the technical routine. It?s done by a PC draw at least 24 hours prior to the first part of the competition. For the free routine, the countries that finish in places 5th thru 8th in the technical routine draw to swim 1st thru 4th in the free routine, and the countries that finish 1st thru 4th draw to swim 5th thru 8th. The most desired spot is swimming last.

Final Placement is figured chose the victor and overall placement, the technical routine and free routine points must be weighed up to 35 and 65% and then put together. To do this, multiply the technical routine points by 35 and the free routine score by 65 and after that add the 2 figures together.

Methods of grading are varied. In each routine, the judgment consists of 2 parts, technical merit and artistic impression. Scores are judged on a scale of 1-10.

Technical merit judges look at the carrying out of the strokes and figures in a routine, forward motion, exactness of patterns performed, synchronization with others and the melody, and the overall complexity of the motions made.

Artistic Impression judges give consideration to the diversity, the technical merit, ingenuity, swimming pool coverage, grace and shifts, musical elucidation, mode of performance, and overall skills.

The awards are determined in the following fashion:

Completely failed 0.0

Hardly recognizable 0.1-1.9

Very Weak 2.0-2.9

Weak 3.0-3.9

Deficient 4.0-4.9

Satisfactory 5.0-5.9

Competent 6.0-6.9

Good 7.0-7.9

Very Good 8.0-8.9

Excellent 9.0-9.4

Near Perfect 9.5-9.9