Team Spain is celebrating a long-awaited medal-winning performance at the 2024 Paris Games.

After three days of thrilling competition, the country’s artistic swimming team secured a bronze medal in the Artistic Swimming Team Event in Paris.

The final rankings were determined by adding the scores of the Team Technical, Team Free and Team Acrobatic – on the Olympic program for the first time.

The Spanish team came into the night’s acrobatic event ranked third, but still in a tight fight with Japan and France to hang on to that position. The Spanish knew they couldn’t afford any mistakes, and handled the pressure beautifully in their “One Shot, One Opportunity” routine, which they had last showcased at the Doha World Championships.

They had an impeccable swim and reached a cumulative score of 900.7319 to clinch the bronze behind the People’s Republic of China (996.1389) in gold and the United States of America (914.3421) in silver.

“I feel really excited,” said team captain Meritxell Mas Pujadas. “It’s been a lot of work. We were really nervous before tonight, we knew that we had to fight a lot until the end, but I trusted my team and it was all worth it. It’s a lot of emotions right now…  I’m really, really, really happy. I was also nervous because it was my first time being a flier for the acrobatics. It was crazy, I had never done it, but I accepted the challenge. It was a goal for me to achieve, so I’m really happy about that too.”

“I don’t realize what’s happening yet,” Lilou Lluis Valette said. “I can’t stop crying, I can’t even find the words. We’ve been so focused since we woke up, and all day has just been perfect. Today is really a perfect day.”

Spain had finished seventh in Tokyo – this Paris team actually includes five returning Olympians from that squad – and secured its first Olympic medal since 2012.