Aquatics GB artistic swimmers set for World Cup opener after historic 2024

Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe's unforgettable performances at the Olympic Games in Paris secured GB's first-ever Olympic medal in the sport, while their pair of duet medals at February's World Championships were also an Aquatics GB artistic swimming first. Add to that Ranjuo Tomblin becoming European champion in the men's solo event and a first European medal in a team event for nearly four decades, and there was barely time to catch breath between celebrations across a memorable season.

The impact of that campaign is still being felt, with Shortman and Thorpe now sat at the top of the World Aquatics artistic swimming world rankings for the first time ever in the Free Duet category, courtesy of their performances last year - another symbol of the astonishing progress made by the artistic swimming programme since the sport's major rule changes at the end of 2022.

Now, preparations are well underway for a 2025 season that is set to include the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore in July, as well as June’s European Championships, which has been confirmed as taking place in Funchal, Madeira.

Before then, a GB team will be heading back to Paris for the first time since that historic Olympic moment to kick off the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup this weekend, from 28th February to 2nd March.

"We're excited to get back to Paris - unfortunately it's not at the Olympic Aquatics Centre, but we do return to a competition pool where we competed a few years before the Games, when things started heating up for us ready for the Olympics, so that will be quite exciting," said Artistic Swimming Manager Karen Thorpe.

"It's exciting for us as it's the first time we've taken a team to an international competition this early in the season, it's really early for us - but we wanted to do that because we've got quite a few younger ones in the squad now, and we want to give them the learnings and the experience of going to an international competition where there will be a lot of other countries involved, as the France leg is always a popular one."

The British senior artistic swimming programme has a 17-strong athlete list for 2025, including new additional duet and mixed duet pairings, with a host of swimmers making the step up from the junior ranks as an opportunity to begin building towards the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.

Olympic and world medallists Shortman and Thorpe are again part of the setup, as is European champion Tomblin, plus Florence Blinkhorn, Holly Hughes, Sophie Rowney, Robyn Swatman, Amelie Williams and Eve Young - all part of the team that won European Free Team bronze in Belgrade last summer.

Robyn Ashworth, Danae Boitsidis, Loya Cenkci, Jessica Hinxman, Pia Lanham, Marie-Ange Seigfried, Magdalena Townsend and Cara Zeidler complete the programme at the High Performance Centre in Bristol, with the team in good shape for the campaign ahead.

At the World Cup opener, Tomblin will contest the Men's Tech Solo, with Cenkci competing in the women's event. Young and Swatman are the Women's Tech Duet pairing, Hughes and Tomblin combine in the Mixed Tech Duet and there will also be GB involvement in the Tech Team contest.

Find out more about the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup here.

Aquatics GB artistic swimming senior squad for 2025:

Robyn Ashworth, City of Bristol Aquatics

Florence Blinkhorn, Reading Royals

Loya Cenkci, Aquavision

Danae Boitsidis, City of Bristol Aquatics

Jessica Hinxman, Reading Royals

Holly Hughes, City of Bristol Aquatics

Pia Lanham, City of Bristol Aquatics

Sophie Rowney, City of Salford

Marie-Ange Siegfried, City of Bristol Aquatics

Kate Shortman, City of Bristol Aquatics

Robyn Swatman, Walsall Artistic Swimming Club

Isabelle Thorpe, City of Bristol Aquatics

Ranjuo Tomblin, Rushmoor Artistic Swimming Club

Magdalena Townsend, City of Birmingham

Amelie Williams, City of Bristol Aquatics

Eve Young, Rugby Swimming Club

Cara Zeidler, Reading Royals