I swam synchro for 10 years and have been coaching for two years. Often, I find that people don’t know much about the sport, they have stereotypical viewpoints on the sport or they don’t consider it a sport because they don’t think it requires athleticism. I hope that by reading this article, you’ll have an idea of what I think makes this sport both aesthetically fascinating, challenging, and fun to do.
1. It’s Glamorous
In synchronized swimming, you get to look fabulous. Getting ready for competitions almost feels like getting ready for a night on the town. You get to put on makeup and did I mention how glittery the competition suits are? In synchro, glitter is a symbol of status. You can tell a good team from a bad one purely by looking at how much glitter she has on her suit.
2. Memes
It’s commonly known that pictures of synchronized swimmers often turn out funny. They make funny faces or they contort their bodies in unnatural ways. All these funny pictures make for some of the greatest memes.
3. Traveling
Synchronized swimming teams are often limited in a specific geographical location because it is a much less common sport than something like soccer. This means that you get to travel a lot for competitions. The competition zones can be large, so swimmers get to take trips to places they otherwise might never visit. For example, the South Zone for synchronized swimming includes Maryland, Texas, and Florida, so if you are on a team in this zone, you will likely be able to travel a lot. As a swimmer, this is great. You get to secretly stay up all night talking to your teammates, ignoring the fact that you need to be ready early the next morning for competition.
4. Oxygen is for the weak
Synchronized swimmers have to hold their breath for a ridiculous amount of time while swimming a routine. For non-swimmers, it is probably similar to holding your breath while sprinting, which, to most people, would seem demanding and a little crazy. Gemma Mengual and Andrea Fuentes make this seem easy in their swim at the 2007 ESP Brazil World Cup when they performed a 25 second leg sequence.
5. You can’t touch the bottom
So many people have the misconception that swimmers can touch the bottom during their routines to help support themselves. Touching bottom actually results in penalties or disqualification during competition. Swimmers have to use their own strength to hold themselves up and they do this while making it look easy. So many people talk smack about how synchro is easy and end up looking like this when they try:
6. Lifts
Personally, I think lifts are the coolest part of synchro. The creativity of lifts never ceases to amaze me. Who would have thought to do a hand stand on someone's feet?
A lot of people think that in order to do these lifts, girls stand on the bottom of the pool, but the rule discussed above actually applies to lifts as well. Yes, that means that these girls are treading water while lifting or throwing swimmers several feet in the air.
