The jungle drums were beating as Australia's artistic swimming team of dentistry, architecture, teaching, engineering and paramedic students got their Olympic campaign started in Paris.
The eight-woman outfit, performing to Hans Zimmer's Volcano, had a tough act to follow in hosts France in the team technical routine on Monday at the Paris Aquatic Centre.
With a jungle theme featuring drum beats and accents they scored 235.9071 and sit last of the 10 teams after the first of three routines.
Free routine follows on Tuesday and medals are awarded after Wednesday's acrobatic routines.
With longtime powerhouse Russia not competing at the Olympics after the invasion of Ukraine, artistic swimming opened with a rare dose of unpredictability.
China led after the team technical routine with 313.5538 points, followed by Spain (287.1475), Italy (277.8304) and France (277.7925).
Australia had notched their highest-ever score to finish eighth in the women's team technical at February's world championships in Doha.
But they were off the pace in front of a roaring, partisan crowd at the packed arena
Russia had claimed all 12 gold possible since Sydney's 2000 Games in the sport formerly known as synchronised swimming.
But the country has been largely shunned on the international sports stage since launching its war on Ukraine and has not entered an artistic swimming team at a major competition since the Tokyo Olympics.
Men were eligible for the team event for the first time at these Games, but none of the 10 teams picked a male swimmer.
Paris is debuting a new Games scoring system, with execution and artistic impression separately judged on a scale of difficulty decided on by each country.
With AP
