The “Unique Mermaid” Angelina Makarova won four medals at the Down Syndrome Games

Angelina Makarova won four medals at the Antalya Trisomal Games, with this award in synchronized swimming becoming the first awarded to Russians in the history of these competitions.

The Down Syndrome Games will take place in Antalya, Turkey, and end on March 26. Makarova, in addition to bronze in synchronized swimming, won three victories in swimming – at distances of 50 and 100 m backstroke, as well as in the relay.

— The Down Syndrome Games are like a world championship for athletes with Down Syndrome. In synchronized swimming, we have never participated in these competitions before. We are the first to start practicing adapted synchronized swimming in Russia. Our girls – “unique mermaids” – have been practicing this sport for only two years. And Angelina won bronze at the Down Syndrome Games in the adapted synchronized swimming discipline with a technical program. At the same time, she was competing against girls who had been doing this for at least seven years. Everyone was very surprised that she was so new to our sport.

I would like such a discipline to appear, there to be competitions – this is our main task. In Russia, “unique mermaids” already take part in competitions between normotypical children, these are competitions organized by clubs,” Tatiana Alexandrova, director of the Federation of Water Sports for People with Mental Disabilities, told .