More history for scholar Kate Shortman as she and artistic swimming partner Izzy Thorpe win groundbreaking Duet silver
Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe made history once again when they won Great Britain’s first-ever Olympic medal in artistic swimming.
The pair produced outstanding Technical and Free routines in the Aquatics Centre in Paris, on Friday and Saturday respectively, to secure a stunning silver in the overall standings.
Their latest success follows on from the breakthrough World Aquatics Championships medals won by the duet in February 2024, as well as Bath sporting scholar Shortman’s historic bronze in the non-Olympic Solo Free competition in 2023.
Shortman and Thorpe, appearing at their second Games following their debuts in Tokyo, had positive memories of the Aquatics Centre having won Technical Duet gold at the Olympic Test Event in May.
They produced another strong Technical performance on Friday night, scoring 264.0282pts to sit fourth overnight – just 0.7pts off the podium places.
Their best was yet to come as a stunning Free routine earned a huge score of 294.5085 – the highest of all 17 Duets competing – and secured a silver medal for the emotional British duo behind China’s Liuyu Wang and Qianyi Wang.
Shortman studies International Management and Modern Languages (French) at the University of Bath, where she is supported by a Bill Whiteley Scholarship.
“It honestly is like a dream, I can’t believe it,” she said. “We have worked so hard to get here, I didn’t want to cry but I am. There’s so many people to thank, thank you obviously to Izzy because we’ve been through some really hard times trying to get here and it just makes me emotional that it was all worth it.
“We just hope we can inspire young girls and boys to join the sport. It’s always been of our goal to expand the sport, it’s so fun, it’s so dynamic and obviously it’s a creative sport so we just hope that this has inspired people and hopefully young athletes will be inspired as well.
“It’s just the most incredible cherry on the top of over a decade’s worth of friendship and training together. We’ve seen each other at our very worst and our very best. It’s been a hard and very long journey but we’re so happy that we’re here and we get to do it together.”
Picture credits: AP Photo/Alamy Stock Images.
