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Competitions and Rules
Competitions
There are two significant competitions a year in New Zealand, which run according to World Aquatics Rules:
South Island Championships/Regionals - usually held around late May, early June
NZ National Championships/Nationals - usually held in the September/October school holidays
Swimmers who achieve well in these competitions can go on to represent their club overseas, or to represent New Zealand at Oceanias, Junior World Championships, World Championships or the Olympic Games.
Competitions in New Zealand
At the South Islands and Nationals, swimmers can compete in one or both events:
Figures - figures are the basic building blocks of artistic swimming. They are combinations of body positions and transitions performed in a certain order and in a controlled manner.
The difficulty of these figures progresses with each age category as the swimmer progresses through the sport.
A swimmer will need to perform four figures at competition in front of a panel of judges. Figure scores make up 50% of routine scores.
Routines - these are performed either as a Solo, Duet or Team. Routines are performed to music and are judged on execution, difficulty and Artistic Impression; which is essentially choreography, musical interpretation and presentation.
Swimmers wear specially designed togs and often headpieces for these routines.
An example of gorgeous togs swimmers may get to wear while performing routines. https://olympic.org.nz/athletes/eva-morris
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