Bill May

Bill May is an American artistic swimmer who became the first man to win a world championship gold medal in the sport. Born on January 17, 1979, May began artistic swimming at age ten, entering a discipline whose highest international competitions were then closed to men. He trained with the Santa Clara Aquamaids under Chris Carver, becoming the program's first male swimmer and positioning himself within one of the United States' strongest artistic-swimming systems even as Olympic rules offered no competitive pathway for male competitors.

By the late 1990s, May was winning international open-event duet titles and earned USA Synchro Athlete of the Year honors for consecutive years. His pursuit of Olympic competition ended with the 2004 Games, where men remained ineligible for artistic swimming. He subsequently retired from competitive swimming and spent much of the next decade with Cirque du Soleil, where aquatic skill became theatrical performance rather than judged sport.

The creation of mixed-duet events at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan transformed his career. Returning from retirement, May paired with Christina Jones in the technical event and Kristina Lum in the free event. On July 26, 2015, May and Jones won gold in the technical competition—the first world-championship artistic-swimming gold awarded to any man. Four days later, May and Lum earned silver in the free event.

May continued competing in mixed duets through subsequent World Championships, earning bronze medals in both technical and free events in Budapest in 2017 and returning again in 2019 at age forty. In 2023, he earned World Championships silver in team acrobatic and Pan American Games silver with the U.S. mixed team. Following the 2022 approval of male eligibility for Olympic artistic-swimming team events, May pursued selection for Paris 2024 at age forty-five, though he was not chosen for the final roster. His significance lies in a sustained competitive record and public advocacy that helped shift institutional policy and demonstrated the athletic and expressive possibilities of mixed-gender artistic swimming.