Young Canadian male artistic swimmer can now aim for Olympics

Like many amateur athletes with big sporting dreams, Canadian artistic swimmer Chris Niehaus hopes to one day represent his country on the Olympic stage.

Since taking up the sport six years ago, the 13-year-old from Toronto could only aim as high as the world championships.

However, that changed last week when the International Olympic Committee gave its approval for national committees to include up to two male athletes on their rosters for artistic swimming team events at the Summer Olympics.

"I was excited because I feel that I have a chance to go to the Olympics if I keep up my hard work," Niehaus told The Canadian Press.

Artistic swimming — also known as synchronized swimming — has been an exclusively female competition at the Games since the sport was added to the Olympic program in 1984.

Canada Artistic Swimming chief executive officer Jackie Buckingham said Canada is one of several countries that have lobbied for male inclusion in recent years.

"This has taken a while," she said in a recent interview. "It's really, really time."

The mixed duet discipline — which features one male and one female swimming side by side — was added to the international program in 2015 but has yet to crack the Olympic lineup.

Five events will be on the schedule at the Olympic Aquatics Centre for the 2024 Games in Paris. They include free duets, technical duets, finale duets, free teams and technical teams.

Niehaus, a Grade 8 student, is based at the Olympium Artistic Swimming Club in west Toronto. He has competed in different age categories at the local, regional and national level in what has traditionally been a female-dominated sport.

"There's definitely lots of male synchro athletes out there, they just haven't had a chance to