Kolesnichenko and Romashina scored 195.9079 points on their way to winning the first artistic swimming gold of Tokyo 2020, performing a routine to famous Russian folk song Kalinka.

Kolesnichenko and Romashina led the competition after the first day’s technical routine, and also scored the highest marks on the second day in the free routine as they claimed gold in convincing fashion.

Kolesnichenko, 27, won gold in the team event at Rio 2016, and has also won multiple gold medals at five World Championships, including at Gwangju 2019, when she won the solo technical routine, duet technical routine, duet free routine and free combination categories.

At the 2020 European Championships, Kolesnichenko won the duet technical routine, duet free routine and team technical routine categories in Budapest, Hungary.

Kolesnichenko, who took up the sport at the age of seven, has won the award of International Swimming Federation Female Artistic Swimmer of the Year twice, in 2017 and 2019, when she shared the award with Romashina.

Away from the water, she enjoys spending time with her dogs, and entering them into dog shows.

Romashina, 31, has now won gold medals at four successive Olympics, including three successive duet titles at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

She has won team gold at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, and both Romashina and Kolesnichenko were a part of the successful team event later in the Games.

Romashina has won multiple gold medals at six World Championships, including in the solo free, duet technical, duet free and free combination categories at Gwangju 2019.

Romashina also won three gold medals at the last European Championships in 2020, in the duet technical, duet free and team free routines.

She began training in artistic swimming at the age of six after being asked to choose between artistic swimming and dancing.

Away from competing and training, Romashina’s hobbies include fishing, gathering mushrooms, sailing and helping stray animals.