Twin sisters Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi from Nanshan District won the gold medal in the artistic swimming women’s technical duet at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, capital of Hungary, on Sunday.

Shenzhen twins Wang Liuyi (L) and Wang Qianyi celebrate on the podium after winning the gold medal in the artistic swimming women’s technical duet at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Sunday. Photos from Xinhua

The 25-year-olds scored 93.7536 points for the title. It is China’s first gold in Budapest and also the first gold the national artistic swimming team has ever won in the duet event of the World Championships.

They were favorites of the event as they won the gold medal in the women’s team free combination five years ago in the 17th World Championships, China’s first-ever gold medal in artistic swimming at the event.

At Budapest, they led the preliminaries among 32 pairs of contestants with 92.6378 points.

“It is a great honor to stand on the top of the podium at the World Championships,” elder sister Wang Liuyi told Xinhua after the final. “We were satisfied with our performance and luckily the judges also appreciated our unique routine.” 

Younger sister Wang Qianyi added: “We presented what we had in our training, our final scores were higher than the preliminaries, and our self-evaluation was better than the preliminaries.”

Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi during the competition.

Wang Liuyi, unfortunately, missed the event in last year’s Tokyo Olympics due to injuries, but this time the sisters managed to show up and chase their dreams together.

“Although I was not able to participate in the last Olympic Games, we will cheer for each other as long as one of us is participating in the event,” said Wang Liuyi. “This time, it is an honor to represent the Chinese team in the double event. I am excited that we could present an improved performance.”

“I have experienced the Olympic Games before and now I have a chance to participate in the World Championships with my sister. We encourage and support each other in both training and competitions,” Wang Qianyi noted.

The twins, born in Shenzhen, took an interest in artistic swimming at 8 when they came to Shenzhen sports team in 2005, asking to learn artistic swimming. According to coach Hu Lianghui, the twins almost didn’t make it to the team due to their parents’ heights.

There is an unwritten rule in artistic swimming. If a female athlete is less than 1.68 meters tall, she is unlikely to become a professional. The twins’ father is less than 1.7 meters tall, while their mother is slightly taller than 1.6 meters, which means the daughters are unlikely to be tall enough.

However, the twins’ determination and strengths impressed Hu. She recalled that the twins, who studied at Nanshan Foreign Languages School, went for training after school every day. 

At 20 years old, the twins grew to be 1.72 meters tall. They were among the tallest when joining the national artistic swimming team in 2017.

“They had good physical quality and were willing to bear hardships. Their advantages in solid basic skills gradually emerged,” Hu recalled, reaffirming that she had made the right decision when she recruited them. 

In 2010, the twins won the gold medal in artistic swimming duet at the provincial games at 13. They also won a gold and a bronze medal at the national games in 2013 and 2017, respectively.

The twins will participate in team events today and tomorrow.