While track and field, gymnastics, swimming and basketball get all the Olympics headlines, there are A LOT of Olympics sports. One that Black audiences probably aren’t paying much attention to is artistic swimming f.k.a. synchronized swimming. Well that may change after Team USA’s Michael Jackson-themed program on Monday.
Performing their technical routine to the King of Pop’s 1987 classic “Smooth Criminal,” the team hit multiple MJ-style dance moves while floating underwater, including a spectacular Moonwalk. According to the official Michael Jackson X account, Team USA “perfected” their routine in 2022, even learning some of the entertainer’s signature moves from the cast of the Cirque du Soleil production, “Michael Jackson ONE.”
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Viewers who saw it live couldn’t stop talking about it, so it wasn’t long before the rest of the internet chimed in on the team’s ridiculous athleticism.
One person wondered why their scores didn’t reflect everyone else’s excitement, writing on X, “the #TeamUSA artistic swimming program to ‘Smooth Criminal’ was dope AF. Their score felt low. I’ve been watching for 90 mins, so clearly I am now an expert.”
Another user was truly amazed at what they saw, posting, “I just watched team USA artistic swimming team perform to smooth criminal and these mfs did the moonwalk UPSIDE DOWN in a freaking pool.”
Someone else thought their routine was the “highlight of [the] day,” calling it “Instantly iconic!”
Meanwhile, one fan was forced to change their whole Olympic code writing on X, “I’m not one of those people that’s like “USA ALWAYS” during the Olympics, I actually root for the underdogs a lot, but the US artistic (synchronized) swimming team doing the moonwalk underwater to Michael Jackson is freaking incredible.”
It looks like all their hard work has paid off, as the U.S. took home silver in the team artistic swimming event. This is Team USA’s first medal since 2004.
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