TOKYO: Holding back tears, her freshly won seventh Olympic gold medal hanging around her neck, Svetlana Romashina announced the end of the greatest Olympic career in artistic swimming history.

After leading the Russian squad to victory in the team event on Saturday, the 31-year-old Romashina wants to embrace motherhood.

Already the mother of a three-year-old daughter, Romashina said it’s time to leave the sport and have another child.

“It will be my last Olympic Games as an athlete. Maybe [in the future] you will see me [as] a coach, Romashina said. I just want to be with my family now. I want to have my second baby The sixth and the seventh [golds] were the [toughest] in my life. I became a mother and it was very difficult to be a mother and an athlete at one moment. If I tell you about my daughter I will cry.”

Romashina has won or been on the winning team of every single event she’s participated in at four Olympics.

The rest of the ROC team included: Vlada Chigireva, Marina Goliadkina, Svetlana Kolesnichenko, Aleksandra Patskevich, Alla Shishkina and Polina Komar. Romashina teamed with Kolesnichenko to win the duet on Wednesday.

The Russians were heavy favourites in a sport they have dominated for more than two decades. Their last Olympic loss in what was then known as synchronised swimming came at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Performing to Parade of Planets by Denis Gornizov, with planet designs on their swimsuits, ROC was awarded 98.8000 points for the free routine and finished with a total of 196.0979 points after also leading the technical routine. China finished 2.5669 points behind to take the silver medal and Ukraine was 5.7961 behind for bronze.

Russain reign ends in rhythmic gymnastics

Also on Saturday, Israel’s Linoy Ashram won the individual all-around rhythmic gymnastics gold medal, breaking a Russian stranglehold on the Olympic title that stretched back to 2000.

An Olympic medal event since 1984, rhythmic gymnastics sees athletes perform exquisite contortions and manoeuvres to music while using hoops, balls, clubs or ribbons.

Ashram top-scored in the first three apparatus rounds, surprising the favourites, Russian twins Dina and Arina Averina.

The Israeli ended with 107.800 points, narrowly beating three-time all-around world champion Dina Averina, who took the silver with 107.650. Belarus’ Alina Harnasko bagged bronze with 102.700.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2021