Synchronized swimming. A sport most people are not overly familiar with or in some cases are completely unaware of its existence. So lets start from the very beginning shall we?
Who invented the sport of synchronized swimming?
It is not known who the first person to come up with the concept of synchronized swimming was, but it is believed that Benjamin Franklin could have started the first spark! Growing up in Boston, Massachusetts, Franklin enjoyed spending much of his time swimming in the ocean. He experimented with non-traditional swimming exercises and tried to connect it to possible health benefits. He called this ‘ornamental swimming’. Maybe it was because he was such an influence figure, or because of his continuous advocacy for the sport, swimming became increasingly popular to the general public in the early eighteenth century.
Ornamental Swimming to Water Ballet
More than a century after Franklin started this new swimming trend, clubs started forming around the world performing this unique style of swimming. It was not longer referred to as ornamental swimming but became more formally known as water ballet. Fast-forwarding into the 1900s, an Australian woman named Annette Kellerman moved to America. Kellerman was a talented actor, distance swimmer, diver and ballerina. Naturally she found herself to be a perfect candidate for water ballet! She soon became famous, not through her athletic achievements, but by wearing a one-piece bathing suit that fully revealed her arms and legs! In 1907 she swam an underwater routine with her revealing bathing suit in a large glass tank in New York City. This performance generated even more intrigue and interest surrounding water ballet. A noticeable number of clubs began to form in aquatic centres. Colleges all over the country started to build teams of their own where its increasing popularity started gaining the interest of larger audiences. Water ballet was shown off at the World Fair in Chicago, 1934 by a group of women who were known as The Modern Mermaids. Their performance was called ‘A Combination of strokes, tricks and Floating Formations’. The show was given raving reviews, including one by a commentator who unintentionally renamed the sport by calling the performance ‘Synchronized swimming’.
Annette Kellerman (1905)
Synchronized Swimming in the Cinemas
In 1952 Synchronized swimming made an appearance on the big screen. Esther Williams, an American swimming champion and bathing suit beauty was casted to be the lead character of a movie called ‘Million Dollar Mermaid’. The movie is a musical, romantic drama, which tells the story of the influential Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman. The movie is full of extravagant synchronized swimming scenes, which presents elaborate sets, lights and fountains exaggerating the elements of its natural theatrical performance. To this day Esther Williams is one of the most iconic figures in synchronized swimming history!
But of course Hollywood couldn’t help but make a mockery of synchronized swimming in 1999 when it became the opening scene of a rather well known movie, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. During the opening credits, the film directors recreated a scene from Esther Williams’s film, Million Dollar Mermaid. In addition to the ridiculous demonstration and false representation of the original scene, the directors added flower caps and images of the swimmers standing on the bottom of the pool, which further illegitimated synchronized swimming’s image. This short scene in the Austin Powers movie changed the way people began to think of synchronized swimming. From what was previously known as a beautiful and elegant performance was turned into a lasting joke, losing its respect as a sport in many general opinions with lasting effects today.
Setting Sights on the Olympics
Most sports are showcased through professional competition. Perhaps one of the most sought after is the Olympic Games. In 1951 Synchronized Swimming began its quest to achieve recognition as a sport and be granted permission to compete in the Olympics. The first attempt was made at the Pan American Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina where Team Canada and Team USA demonstrated the athletic demand and physical skills that were needed to perform the sport. It was not until the 1955 Pan American Games in Mexico City, Mexico when Synchronized Swimming was competed as an official sport for the first time. Despite its continental recognition, the Olympic committee was not yet convinced it was qualified to be an Olympic sport. It took another 20 years of demonstrations as well as fine-tuning its rules and regulations before it was approved to compete in the Olympic Games. Synchronized Swimming made its Olympic debut at the 1984 games in Los Angeles, USA. At this time, the Solo and Duet events were the only two completed. The Olympic rules changed in 1996 to allow only the Team event to compete at the games. The Duet event was added back to the sport in 2000, but Solo has not again made an appearance on the Olympic stage.
Today
Synchronized swimming has evolved enormously over the last 30 years. The sport has grown its international recognition and today more than 85 countries have synchronized swimming programs! The speed and difficulty of the sport has reached a level that was once thought impossible. Swimmers keep pushing their limits and raising the bar. Although despite its achievements, it still struggles to remain recognized as a sport. In 2015 the Olympic committee questioned whether or not synchronized swimming should remain in the Olympics due to its subjective inclination and its mocked image. FINA, the governing body of water sports has made changes to the rules such as not allowing unnatural or dramatic make up, and creating strict limits on how much skin can be showing in costumes, in hopes the public will recognize synchronized swimming as a disciplined sport that deserves respect the same as any other. It will talk time and persistence to change so many negative opinions, but it will be worth the fight!
For more information please visit http://synchroswim.isport.com/synchronized-swimming-guides/history-of-synchronized-swimming
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