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WHAT IS SYNCHRONISED SWIMMING?

Can you imagine running for up to five minutes while performing acrobatics, holding your breath, looking graceful and having to keep in time to the music or your fellow athletes? No? Well welcome to the world of synchronised swimming!

Synchronised Swimming used to be known as ‘water ballet’ and this is a good starting point to see the sport, because routines are essentially athletic movements performed in water and choreographed to music.

However, Synchronised Swimming is also a very strenuous and skilful sport because competitors need strength and flexibility to perform the routines, as well as rhythm and flair to synchronise and interpret the music.

Synchronised Swimming is open to both male and female athletes but it is a sport dominated by women, mainly because the Olympic and World Championship competitions are not open to men.

Athletes perform routines that can be anything from two and a half minutes to five minutes long, depending on whether they perform alone or part of a team. The routines are made up of certain movements that are performed using certain basic positions. Approximately two thirds of a synchronised swimming routine is performed under water.

Synchronised swimming started at Bristol Central in 1947 when George Jones was looking for a different aspect of swimming to make galas more entertaining. He asked two of his swimmers to demonstrate together and they put on a display. Gradually more swimmers joined in to form the “Bristol Central Floating Team”. They synchronised their strokes as they swam patterns, often to a background of music. The team became very popular and travelled all over the West Country giving displays.

On the International scene, Synchronised Swimming was already well established in the USA and Canada and in 1962 the Amateur Swimming Association started to develop the sport in this country.

A group of Synchro Swimmers was formed at Bristol Central under the guidance of Pat Holmyard and Betty Jones and success came gradually. Our International breakthrough came in 1977 when Caroline Holmyard was picked to swim the junior solo for Great Britain. Since then our swimmers’ involvement at International level has continued, with our swimmers regularly representing our Country. Most recently this includes Anya Tarasiuk, Charlotte Frost and Isobel Collings, who represented Great Britain as part of the Junior GB Squad at the Junior European Synchronised Swimming Championships in April 2009.

Anya was selected into the Senior Great Britain Team in August and joins Katie Dawkins, another swimmer from Bristol Central who has been a member of the Senior squad since 2007.  Both have centralised to the High Performance Centre in Aldershot where they train full time in preparation for the 2012 Olympics.  Katie has represented Great Britain at various competitions during 2009 as part of the Senior Team.

This year we have 8 swimmers who have been selected into the England Talent Squad; Anastasija Bates, Isobel Collings, Alice Dale, Phoebe Falconer, Charlotte Frost, Emma Holloway, Alexandra O’Mahony and Samantha Wilson.

Contact the Synchro Section:

Email: synchro.section@bristolcentralsc.co.uk