566.4783 points! Gold medal! The sisters hugged each other and burst into tears.

On the evening of the 10th, the artistic swimming duet event at the Paris Olympic Games came to an end. The Chinese duo Wang Liuyi/Wang Qianyi, who led in the technical routine, ranked fourth in the free routine but won the gold medal with the highest overall score. This is also the first time in history that the Chinese team has won a gold medal in the duet event at the artistic swimming Olympics.

The duet event at the Paris Olympic Games consisted of two rounds: technical routine and free routine. In the technical routine held on the 9th, Wang Liuyi/Wang Qianyi scored the highest points with their themed routine "The Lotus". In the free routine, the sisters presented a completely different themed routine, "The Leopard".

Compared to the elegance and agility of "The Lotus", "The Leopard" showcased speed and power. The sisters' performance and artistic expression were outstanding, but their difficulty level was slightly lower than that of other duos, ranking fourth with a score of 289.6916 points. Fortunately, with a significant advantage accumulated from the technical routine, the sisters won the gold medal with a lead of 7.9416 points over the second-place British duo, Shorthman/Sopp. The Dutch duo, the De Brouwer sisters, won the bronze medal.

"When the scores were first displayed on the big screen, there was only the score of that round, without the overall ranking. So we didn't dare to stand up and cheer. When the ranking came out, we were really excited," said the older sister, Wang Liuyi. During the preparations, they didn't know the difficulty levels of other teams' routines, so they could only focus on doing their best and ensuring the quality of their own routine.

In the scoring system of artistic swimming, difficulty, execution, and artistic impression are all essential. Different athletes adopt different balancing strategies. The sisters did not insist on high difficulty levels in both rounds but relied on good execution and artistic impression. Looking at the two rounds, their declared difficulty score was not among the top in the field of 17 duos, only ranking in the middle.

On the eve of the free routine, the sisters were shocked when they found out the difficulty levels declared by their competitors. "They are so ambitious! The difficulty levels they declared are even higher than we expected. It surprised us. And our difficulty levels were already declared, so there was no way to change them," said the younger sister, Wang Qianyi. When their coach told them, it was already too late to make any changes.

During the competition, the high-difficulty moves performed by the British and Dutch teams were approved by the judges and ultimately scored higher than the Chinese team. "The free routine itself is full of uncertainties. They added such high difficulty, which could have been penalized, but they executed it really well. I think they are amazing!" said Wang Liuyi.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Wang Liuyi missed out due to an injury, while Wang Qianyi participated in the team event and won a silver medal. However, it was Wang Qianyi who cried even harder after winning the gold medal for the second time at the Olympics.

"The pressure on my younger sister is greater because she has already participated in an Olympic Games and has more experience. If we fail to achieve our goal, she will blame herself," explained Wang Liuyi.

From team to duet, the Chinese team swept both gold medals in the artistic swimming event at the Paris Olympics, marking two historic breakthroughs.

After the competition, the head coach of the Chinese team, Zhang Xiaohuan, gathered the team in a circle, where they laughed and cried.

"In the past three years, the girls have experienced earth-shaking changes from the old rules to the new rules. I think for this generation of athletes, it is both great and particularly difficult. In this process, there was blood, sweat, and tears, but in the end, everyone endured it. This is the result of the team's collective efforts and the result of several generations of artistic swimming athletes striving for this goal. We are proud and proud of it! I believe that artistic swimming in China will only get better!" Zhang Xiaohuan said.