Canada's artistic swimming team qualified for the Paris Olympics – Winnipeg Free Press

DOHA, Qatar – Canada's freestyle swimming team qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics after finishing seventh in the freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships on Friday.

The result gave Canada the fifth-best combined score in the national acrobatic, technical and freestyle team events that did not qualify for the Olympics.

Doha had five Olympic venues.

USA, Spain, Japan and Italy also qualified. China won the event and won the title of champion of the 2022 Asian Games.

Montreal's Audrey Lamothe and Jacqueline Simoneau also qualified for the Olympic women's duet competition after finishing seventh in technical and fifth in free at the world championships.

Simono won gold in the women's singles and silver in the technical competition in Doha. Individual competitions will not be included in the 2024 Olympic program.

Anna Voloshina was appointed head coach of the artistic swimming team on February 19. He signed on as an assistant coach with Team USA in Doha.

The 32-year-old Ukrainian is tasked with returning Canada to the Olympic podium in this sport. Canadians have competed at every Games since freestyle swimming made its Olympic debut in 1984, but fell outside the top three after a team bronze in 2000.

The World Aquatics Championships in Doha are the last chance qualifiers for many aquatic events. Canada's women's water polo team will face New Zealand in the Round of 16 on Saturday.

Canada should be one of the two countries that did not go to Paris. Host France, Australia, China, Greece, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain and the United States have secured eight of the 10 Olympic berths.

Divers booked Paris docks for Canada in synchronized events in Doha.

Pointe Claire, Que. and Saskatoon's Rylan Wiens finished fifth in the men's 10m after Nathan Tsombor-Murray won bronze at the 2022 World Championships.

Calgary's Kaeli McKay and Ottawa's Kate Miller finished sixth to advance to Canadian qualification in the women's synchronized springboard.

Two days after finishing 24th in Saturday's women's 10k, Edmonton open water swimmer Emma Finlin was reported to have done enough to secure one of the 22 women's spots for Paris.