Synchronised Swimming
SYNCHRONISED SWIMMING by Elaine Buck - 1973
Synchronised Swimming is a comparatively new sport in this country, but has been swum competitively in other countries since 1945. Basically, Synchronised Swimming is the performance of aquatic movement by one or more performers, synchronised to a musical accompaniment and each other. Many people argue as to whether Synchronised Swimming is an art or a skill. It is a skilful art, requiring a good sense of balance, rhythm, endurance and physical fitness. Synchronised Swimming can be divided into two parts — Stunts and Routines, and mastery of both is essential for the good Synchro girl.
A Synchro swimmer's life revolves around the Stunts, which are all laid down in the F.I.N.A. Handbook, as until these can be mastered, progression to routines is both useless and undesirable. When it is fully understood that the marks earned in the Stunt competition or championship are carried to all routines performed, it will be appreciated why the correct performance of stunts is so important. The term "Stunts", may be a misnomer, giving the uninitiated the idea of a circus performer. A more suitable term would probably be Aqua Gymnas- tics, or even Aquabatics. To perform stunts, swimmers must have above average muscle control, the ability to gauge distance and direction under-water with eyes open while the body is performing intricate and difficult movements, tremendous breath control (some stunts can take up to 17 seconds under water when performed by a skilled synchro girl), and the strength of arms to support the weight of the body.
To anyone who suffers claustrophobia when submerged, Synchro would be impossible. Constant exercise of the correct muscles is necessary during the winter months, both to keep the body supple and strengthen the muscles, and special exercises have been devised to meet the needs of Synchronised Swimmers. After an off-season break, it is necessary for a Synchro swimmer to build up stamina in the water by daily training, which comprises swimming of all strokes, and sculling. For the top performer, a minimum of 1,000 yards a day is necessary, until stamina has been resumed, when an hour of stunt practice daily is necessary.
These stunts are highly technical in detail, and deficiencies are not always noticeable to the untutored eye. Infinite patience is needed by coach and competitor, if all phases of the stunts are to be done correctly, and together with Judges, a high degree of knowledge of the basic positions is essential to all. Routines are a completely different type of challenge. A Synchro girl can have tremendous skill in stunts, and be completely unable to swim a routine with grace and in time to music. The reverse can also apply, of course, and it is to blend these two different skills into a perfect whole, that is the airy of every coach and swimmer.
Early swimming events in England were "carnivals" where spectators were entertained by various forms of diving, swimming races and "ornamental swimming" or "fancy swimming". The "swimming professors" of the day made a living from these events - they were entertainers.
The first water ballet competition on record was held in Berlin in 1891 before the sport was called “synchronized swimming.” Keeping the aquatic carnivals as a popular form of entertainment, water ballet clubs were created in the USA, and shows performed in large tanks, on stage. In 1934, sixty girls swam in the lagoon at the Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago using what they called, “a combination of strokes, tricks and floating formations.” The act received rave reviews. The announcer at the event inadvertently named the sport when he called the performance “synchronized swimming.”
When Hollywood discovered swimming champion and bathing beauty, Esther Williams, synchronized swimming went to the movies. The American Amateur Athletic Union officially adopted synchronized swimming as a competitive sport including both the team and duet events, and by 1942, the first attempt at a National Championships was held.
Natal synchronised swimming Springboks Beverley Martin and Karen Edmonds
Natal synchronised swimming Springboks Beverley Martin and Karen Edmonds
Transvaal Springbok Kerry Woodhead
In 1976 US Olympian Amanda Norrish visted South Africa
Cygnus Club in Durban is the top club in the country offering Synchronised Swimming under the able guidance of Barbara Dowell. Over the years the Cygnus synchronised swimmers have represented KZN at the SA Nationals event winning most of the top medals/trophies. Cygnus members have, over the years, represented SSA at various international events, including Olympic & Commonwealth Games. Earlier in 2008 Cygnus employed a Canadian Coach for 3 months to ensure the skill levels continued and the experience the girls gained during this time was invaluable. In June 2008 a Cygnus team of 7 members travelled to Singapore to compete in the Singapore 3rd National SS competition and brought home 4 gold medals and 1 silver medal. Many of the Cygnus members are representatives of the SA Nationals Junior and Senior teams. Cygnus have just returned from the 2008 National Age Group Championships and brought home the club trophy for the 23rd consecutive year running.
click here to see the Cygnus Centenary brochure
In Cape Town the Wynberg GHS Sue and Emma Manners-Wood runs a synchro programme - click here to see their website.
They also run the Barracuda synchro club
Early swimming events in England were "carnivals" where spectators were entertained by various forms of diving, swimming races and "ornamental swimming" or "fancy swimming". The "swimming professors" of the day made a living from these events - they were entertainers.
Click here to read more about these carnivals and the "professors".
The first water ballet competition on record was held in Berlin in 1891 before the sport was called “synchronized swimming.” Keeping the aquatic carnivals as a popular form of entertainment, water ballet clubs were created in the USA, and shows performed in large tanks, on stage. In 1934, sixty girls swam in the lagoon at the Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago using what they called, “a combination of strokes, tricks and floating formations.” The act received rave reviews. The announcer at the event inadvertently named the sport when he called the performance “synchronized swimming.”
When Hollywood discovered swimming champion and bathing beauty, Esther Williams, synchronized swimming went to the movies. The American Amateur Athletic Union officially adopted synchronized swimming as a competitive sport including both the team and duet events, and by 1942, the first attempt at a National Championships was held.
International competitions also become annual events for synchronized swimmers, with the first World Aquatic Championship, held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1971, and the Pan Pacific Championships in 1974. Finally, after two decades of demonstrations and proving legitimacy, the International Olympic Committee accepted the sport for the 1984 Olympics.
Amanda Taylor and Loren Wulfsohn are the only South African women to have represented the country at the Olympic Games - Barcelona 1992.
A short History of Synchronized swimming
Synchronised swimming grew as a sport from ornamental swimming and theatrical water ballets of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. In the early days, male swimmers performed round-dances in the water as a swimming art form, decorated with garlands or Chinese lanterns. In 1891, the Royal Life Saving Society of Great Britain (RLSS) published a handbook for swimmers encouraging “ornamental swimming” or “scientific swimming”.
The sport developed from life saving and swimming techniques and the first contests, held in 1891 in Berlin and 1892 in London, were for men. However, artistic swimming became accepted as better suited to women because they were more buoyant, especially in the legs, and able to better make pictures with their bodies on the surface of the water.
Australian Annette Kellerman was described as the first under-water ballerina when she performed in a glass tank at the New York Hippodrome in 1907. A group of women opened the German national swimming championships in Leipzig in 1921 with an exhibition of figure swimming but the main impulse came from Canada. In 1924, in a world first, the Quebec provincial championship for figure and stroke competition, limited to women, was held in Montreal, with the figures taken from the scientific swimming section of the RLSS handbook. Top Canadian diver and water polo player Margaret (Peg) Sellers played a pioneering role and, two years later, won the first official national championship in performing figures and strokes.
The sport had also caught on in the United States, where Katherine (Kay) Curtis, who had already experimented with water stunts as a student at the University of Wisconsin, started a water ballet club at the University of Chicago in 1923. At about the same time, Gertrude Goss introduced rhythmic swimming at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she was an associate professor. Curtis took a shoal of 60 swimmers dubbed the Modern Mermaids to perform in the lagoon at the 1934 World Fair in Chicago. It was there that the term “synchronised swimming” was first introduced to a big audience by the announcer, Norman Ross, Olympic freestyle champion in the 400m and 1,500m in 1920.
The popularity of water ballet soared to its theatrical zenith with film star Esther Williams, a US freestyle champion who performed at the San Francisco World Fair in 1940 – the year the first synchronised swimming competition was held in the United States. “Aquacades” also involved the likes of Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Crabbe and Eleanor Holm. Williams went on to make a succession of hugely popular “aqua musicals”, exposing a burgeoning sport to the world. In Europe, the German Kaethe Jacobi introduced competition in floating patterns with her Isar-Nixen (Isar Mermaids) in Munich in 1934.
Meanwhile, the sport that became known as synchronised swimming grew increasingly technical and athletic, with music accompanying the routines. Synchronised swimming sought a place in the Olympics and featured as a demonstration sport from 1952 to 1968. The sport joined the FINA stable with the 1952 adoption of rules in accordance with proposals from Canada, the USA and Argentina, countries where ‘ornamental’ and ‘figure’ swimming had caught the public’s imagination. However, a 1952 Peruvian proposal to ask the IOC for Olympic status was rejected.
The United States and Canada also demonstrated the sport at the first Pan-American Games in Buenos Aires in 1951 and synchronised swimming celebrated its first official international competition appearance at the next Pan-American Games in Mexico in 1955. It featured solo, duet and team events, and the US swept all three titles. Marion Kane played a major role as founder and coach of the San Francisco Merionettes and as a promoter of the sport in its bid for a place on the world stage. The sport received further recognition in 1967 when Pam Morris of the Merionettes, the nation’s first triple champion in 1965, became the first synchronised swimmer to be inducted in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Synchronised swimming entered global competition, with the United States, Canada and Japan competing at the inaugural FINA World Championships in Belgrade in 1973. It finally took its place as a full Olympic sport in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games.