The artistic swimming The United States and Spain reconnected with their history in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by climbing onto the team podium to take silver and bronze, respectively.
The United States had not won an Olympic medal in this sport for two decades – and had not qualified for the Games for 16. For Spain, the team bronze meant a return to the podium since London 2012.
Precisely, Andrea Fuentes He was part of the Spanish team that won bronze twelve years ago (and silver in duets with Ona Carbonell).
Spain and the United States are two teams that have almost gone hand in hand in recent years because the link was clear: Andrea Fuentes, the Spanish artistic swimmer with the most Olympic medals, was the coach with whom the United States has returned to an Olympic podium.
And now the stories of Spain and the United States intersect again after making history in Paris 2024.
Andrea Fuentes will be the new coach artistic swimming in Spain, as announced by the Spanish Swimming Federation on August 20.
Replaces Mayuko Fujikiwho – although he has already collaborated in other positions with Spain on previous occasions – has led the Spanish national team for the last seven years.
Despite the generational change experienced in Spanish artistic swimming, with the retirement of Fuentes herself, Gemma Mengual and Ona Carbonell, Fujiki has managed to return glory to Spanish sport. In addition to the bronze in Paris 2024, together with the Japanese coach, Spain has achieved great successes.
Among them, the gold medal at the 2023 Fukuoka World Championships stands out, the first in history for a technical team. But that is just the icing on a cake full of medals: three bronzes at the 2018 Glasgow European Championships, one bronze and two silvers at the 2019 Gwangju World Championships, one bronze and three silvers at the 2021 Budapest European Championships, one bronze at the 2022 Budapest World Championships and four medals at the 2024 Doha World Championships.