World champion synchronised swimmer Kristina Makushenko has shared a viral clip of her performing an upside-down moonwalk in the pool to mark Michael Jackson’s birthday.
The Russian athlete, who is a four-time world champion in synchronised swimming, shared the video on 29 August to mark Michael Jackson’s birthday.
In the footage, Kristina is seen standing at the bottom of the swimming pool while performing Jackson’s famous dance routine to ‘Smooth Criminal’.
She then switches to a trademark ‘moonwalk’ better associated with Jackson’s 1983 hit ‘Billie Jean’. However, as the synchronised swimmer wanted to “change the perspective” of the famous dance move, she flips around in the pool and performs the moonwalk upside down with her feet shuffling along the water surface.
Makushenko wrote: “Smooth Criminal. Happy Birthday KING OF POP! This is my BRAND NEW version of moonwalking. It was really CHALLENGING to be able to Lean forward (like u saw me doing it at the beginning of reel).
“I think this is first time I had to excel 95% of air in order to lean. And honestly the moment I floated to the surface for ending I thought I will just sink. This is 1 of the hardest reels I’ve ever done! But I really wanted to change perspective of MOONWALKING.”
Kristina posted the video on her TikTok and Instagram pages where she boasts 1.6 million and 656,000 followers respectively.
On TikTok, the clip went viral with 10.6 million views and 50,000 people have watched the footage on her Instagram page.
One TikTok follower commented: “She just walked on water without even knowing it!”
Kristina, known on TikTok as ‘Aqua Queen on Heels’, replied: “I sure knew I did it, but…”
“I love how you landed upside down perfectly on beat I love this,” said another TikTok user.
The synchronised swimmer responded: “U know it took me a lot of tries!” [sic]
“Omg I was amazed at the first moonwalk but then the flip and upside down one blew my mind,” wrote one follower.
“I was like ‘oh cool’ then I hit the literal jaw drop,” commented another user.
Another viewer asked: “How you stay on the bottom of the pool cause I float right back up.”
“That’s actually so impressive,” said another fan.
“Well now I’m drowning cause I have to try this lol,” joked one person.
Someone else commented: “Upside down moonwalk is too crazy.”
