Synchronised swimming in the context of Choreography

Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving, is a mode of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding (apnea) until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear.Besides the limits of breath-hold, immersion in water and exposure to high ambient pressure also have physiological effects that limit the depths and duration possible in freediving.

Examples of freediving activities are traditional fishing techniques, competitive and non-competitive freediving, competitive and non-competitive spearfishing and freediving photography, synchronised swimming, underwater football, underwater rugby, underwater hockey, underwater target shooting and snorkeling. There are also a range of competitive apnea disciplines; in which competitors attempt to attain great depths, times, or distances on a single breath.

Diving was first introduced in the official programme of the Summer Olympic Games at the 1904 Games of St. Louis and has been an Olympic sport since. It was known as "fancy diving" for the acrobatic stunts performed by divers during the dive (such as somersaults and twists). This discipline of Aquatics, along with swimming, synchronised swimming and water polo, is regulated and supervised by the International Swimming Federation (FINA), the international federation (IF) for aquatic sports.

The European Aquatics Championships (commonly referred to as Europeans) is the continental Aquatics championship for Europe, which is organised by European Aquatics (LEN) – the governing body for aquatic sport in Europe. The Championships are currently held every two years (in even years) and since 2022, they have included 5 aquatics disciplines: swimming (long course/50m pool), diving, synchronised swimming, open water swimming and high diving. Prior to 1999, the championships also included water polo, which beginning in 1999 LEN split-off into a separate championships. The open water events are not held during the Olympic year.

The Championships are generally held over a two-week time-period in mid-to-late Summer, but in the most recent Summer Olympics years (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020), the Championships were moved to the Spring to be moved away from the Summer Olympic Games.

The 8th FINA World Championships or the 1998 World Aquatics Championships were held from 8 to 17 January 1998 in Perth, Western Australia. The championships features competition in all five of FINA's disciplines: Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Synchronised swimming and Open Water Swimming. The main venue for competition was Challenge Stadium, which hosted all disciplines except the Open Water events. This was also the venue for the opening ceremony, featuring performances by Human Nature and David Helfgott supported by a large choir drawn from local choral societies. The televised performance was marred when the choir, unable to hear their own music due to the fireworks exploding overhead, lost ensemble cohesion.

Local athlete Michael Klim was named as the leading male swimmer of the meet, winning the 200 m freestyle, 100 m butterfly, 4 × 200 m freestyle, 4 × 100 m medley relay, as well as silver in the 100 m freestyle, 4 × 100 m freestyle relay and bronze in the 50 m freestyle. Ian Thorpe became the youngest ever male to become world champion when he won the 400 m freestyle event aged 15 years and three months.

The 2001 World Aquatics Championships or the 9th FINA World Swimming Championships were held in Fukuoka, Japan between 16 July and 29 July 2001.

The opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the swimming and synchronised swimming events, were held at Marine Messe, an indoor multi-purpose facility. The temporary 50-m pool with 10,000 seats on three sidescost US$4 million for the two-week period. The Fukuoka Prefectural Pool hosted the diving events, with open water swimming taking place at Momochi Beach. Water polo was held at two locations: the men's competition took place at Hakata-no-Mori Center Court and the women's event at the Nishi Civic Pool.