The Beautiful and Graceful Sport of Synchronised Swimming
The Olympic sport of synchronised swimming is one of the most graceful and interesting events that takes place in the Games. The sport is a hybrid of swimming, dancing, and gymnastics, all of which takes place in and under the
water. The sport which is open only to women in the Olympics takes a lot of strength, agility, rhythm and strong swimming skills. The event is judged as a gymnastics event with the swimmers being measured on their ability to perform as a team and also on the
routines chosen. It is an extremely demanding sport that not even capable swimmers can keep up with. The sport is very popular around the world and is rising in popularity in countries where it was not seen before. Synchronised swimming looks all set to grow
in the years to come.
Synchronised swimming or synchro as it is also called, actually started out as the interestingly named activity of water ballet. The true origin of water ballet is not known but it seems to have started in Germany in the late 1800s.
The first actual recorded water ballet event took place in Berlin in 1891. Around that time, many water ballet schools opened in Germany and were very popular. The interesting aspect of this sport is the fact that it developed in numerous countries at the
same time independent of each other. One of the first stars of the sport of water ballet was an Australian woman named Annette Kellerman who popularised the sport by performing an underwater routine in England in 1905. The next year she took her act to America
and she captivated large audiences with her graceful movements and performances. An American woman named Kay Curtis was fascinated by the performances of Kellerman and she started a water ballet club at the University of Chicago. From there the sport grew
in popularity and slowly spread across the States. Many famous swimmers took part in the sport and training schools and clubs popped up all over the place. In 1984, the sport which become known as synchronised swimming instead of water ballet, was introduced
into the Olympic Games. Since then it has remained very popular and is one of the most loved swimming events in the Games.
Synchro is a very difficult sport to take part in. The objective of it is to perform extremely complicated and rigorous manoeuvres in the water while making them looking as if they are very simple to do. Swimmers need to be very
strong swimmers and have to be able to hold their breath for extended periods of time. Most of the moves are performed underwater with the swimmers upside down, so along with holding their breath they are also positioned upside down while performing dance
routines in tune to music and in sync with their team. In the Olympics there are two types of synchronised swimming that take place; the duet and team competitions. Routines are judged by a panel of judges in two distinct ways; the first is how well the team
were in sync with each other and how they all performed as a single unit. The other judging method is on the style of dance chosen and the overall performance of the routine.
Swimmers have been known to train for up to 10 hours a day in order to be ready for the demanding routines and performances they need to do. This sport is a very interesting one because it is a cross between a graceful activity
like ballet and a strenuous sport like swimming. Moreover, synchro swimmers need to have immense strength in their upper and lower bodies while having a background in dance and they have to give appropriate facial expressions and actions according to the dance
routine chosen. The sport is only open to women in the Olympics; probably for the reason that women have a lower centre of gravity and can perform complicated moves in the water better than men can. That said men are allowed to perform in non Olympic competitions
that take place around the world.
Synchronised swimming does not look like it will slow down in the near future. Maybe one day men will also be allowed to take part in the event at the Olympics and then the sport will really grow. Until then we can watch very talented
athletes performing extremely difficult moves in the water all to the beat of music.
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