SYNCHRONISED SWIMMING

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. Through FINA evolution, ornamental swimming developed into an Olympic
sport whose athletes must be not only skilful but supremely fit.

Origins

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 (p37) 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
BJSS Synchro 2010 Page 1
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 (p72). 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 (p74), Buster Crabbe (p84) 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.

BJSS Synchro 2010 Page 2

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.

Structure of the sport

Synchronised swimming entered global competition, with the United States, Canada and
Japan competing at the inaugural FINA World Championships in Belgrade in 1973. It had
previously featured at the Pan-American Games of 1955, 1963 and 1971.

The World Cup was introduced in 1979, with the first edition held in Tokyo. Synchronised
swimming became a full Olympic sport in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games. An annual World
Trophy, in which marks are awarded only for artistic impression (not for technical merit), was

introduced in 2006, the first edition held in Moscow. Junior World Championships were first held in 1989 in Cali,
Colombia.

In the Olympics, solo and duet were contested in 1984, 1988 and 1992.They were both dropped and replaced by
a team event in 1996. Duet returned alongside the team event in 2000.

In the World Championships, the events from 1973 to 2001 consisted of solo, duet and team. A free routine
combination, comprising elements of solo, duet and team, was added in 2003 and renamed ‘free combination’ in
2005. The solo, duet and team events were split in 2007, with medals awarded for both technical and free
routines in all three disciplines. This, with the free combination, increased the programme to seven events

THE EVENTS

Olympic Games:
Solo: 1984, 1988, 1992
Duet: 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008
Team: 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008.

World Championships:
Solo, Duet and Team: 1973, 1975, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2001
Solo, Duet, Team, Free Routine Combination: 2003
Solo, Duet, Team, Free Combination: 2005
Solo Technical Routine, Solo Free Routine, Duet Technical Routine, Duet Free Routine, Team Technical Routine,
Team Free Routine, Free Combination: 2007.

World Cup:
Solo, Duet and Team: 1979, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002
Solo, Duet, Team and Free Combination: 2006.
A World Cup ‘B’ competition was held in Cairo in 2000.

BJSS Synchro 2010 Page 3

World Trophy:
Duet, Team and Free Combination (marks only for artistic impression, combined from the three events to decide
winning nation): 2006, 2007, 2008.

Junior World Championships: 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008.

GUIDE TO SYNCHRONISED SWIMMING

The judging process:

1. Technical Routine: Involves required technical elements which must be performed in series. Teams
choose their own music and choreography but cannot perform elements out of order. Technical Routine
has replaced Compulsory Figures in senior competition.

2. Free Routine: No restrictions on music, choreography and elements.

3. Judging: A panel of 10 judges awards scores from 0 to 10 in increments of one tenth of a point (0.1). Five
evaluate Technical Merit and five evaluate Artistic Impression.

4. Technical Merit:

a. Execution: Perfection of swimming strokes, propulsion techniques, figures, patterns and transitions.
b. Synchronisation: Ability to match one with the other and move with the music.
c. Difficulty: Height of movements above the water, complexity and multiplicity of movements, strength
required, length of time movements require and complexity of synchronisation.

5. Artistic Impression:

a. Choreography: Variety and creativity of movements, transitions, fluidity, patterns and pool usage.

BJSS Synchro 2010 Page 4

 b. Music Interpretation: Use of movement to interpret the music, its dynamics and rhythms.

c. Manner of Presentation: Poise with which routine is presented, ability to communicate through the
choreography and seeming effortlessness of performance.

6. Scoring: Highest and lowest scores in each category (Technical Merit and Artistic Impression) cancelled
and remaining scores averaged. Technical Merit and Artistic Impression totals multiplied by five and added
together (maximum score: 100).

7. Final result: Combined total of 50 per cent of Free Routine score and 50 per cent of Technical Routine
score

Development

Ornamental swimming had its origins in Europe but the sport that grew into synchronised
swimming owes its international recognition above all to the efforts of North Americans.
Margaret (Peg) Sellers, first a champion and later president of the Canadian federation, and
Mary Derosier, who chaired the US governing body, played leading roles in gaining its
acceptance as an Olympic demonstration sport. American Richard Dodson published the
sport’s first magazine, Synchronized Swimmer, in 1951. Sellers edited a handbook for the
sport in Montreal in 1952 and that year, when the sport was demonstrated at the Helsinki
Olympics, the FINA Congress accepted international rules submitted by Derosier and Sellers.

Marion Kane, a former junior national swimming champion, founded the San Francisco Merionettes Club in 1956
and coached them until 1973. The International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) said she had produced 51
national champions, secured 67 national titles (18 solo, 27 duet, and 22 team) and a grand total of 303 national
and international titles, including the Pan-American Games. The Merionettes made tours of Europe, Japan and
Latin America. “She (Kane) did most to create the quality and class that gave her sport the world recognition that
led to World Championships and Olympic acceptance,” states her International Swimming Hall of Fame citation.

When synchronised swimming gained that recognition, the sport’s first world champions were coached by Kay
Vilen at Santa Clara. Before her untimely death in 1976, Vilen saw her Santa Clara Aquamaids, featuring Teresa
Andersen and Gail Johnson-Buzonas, sweep the titles at the 1973 and 1975 World Championships and the Pan-
American Games and Pan-Pacific Championships. The Aquamaids later starred Becky Dyroen-Lancer, triple gold
medallist at the 1994 World Championships, coached by Chris Carver.

One of Vilen’s Aquamaids was Gail Emery, who became a national team champion in 1972 and took part in the
demonstration synchro team at the Munich Olympics. That year she began coaching the Walnut Creek Aquanuts,
a team her mother had founded. In 1980, Emery’s Aquanuts finally defeated the long-reigning Santa Clara
Aquamaids and began an unprecedented streak of 10 consecutive national titles. Emery became national team
coach in 1979 and was coach and manager when synchronised swimming made its Olympic bow in Los Angeles
in 1984, helping to coach Tracie Ruiz to gold in the solo and, with Candy Costie, in the duet.

Emery was head coach at the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics and assistant head coach in 2000. Swimmers she
personally coached included 1992 Olympic duet champions Karen and Sarah Josephson, 1992 solo gold
medallist Kristen Babb-Sprague and five members of the victorious US team at the 1996 Olympics. “Emery’s

BJSS Synchro 2010 Page 5

athletes introduced a technical expertise to the sport that shed the old-school description of synchronized
swimming as ‘water ballet’ and led to the acceptance of the sport as a physically demanding yet artistically
expressive athletic event. She implemented scientifically designed training methods and diverse cross-training
regimens to take her teams to a level only pursued by others,” reads her ISHOF citation.

Russia overhauled the USA with title sweeps at the 1997 World Cup and 1998 World Championships, Olga
Sedakova and Olga Brusnikina in the forefront. “A few years ago it was enough to have several ultra-difficult
elements or connections of elements between which a swimmer just swam,” Brusnikina’s coach Elena
Polyanskaya said after Brusnikina won her second solo world title in 2001. “Now all routines of the best athletes
are filled with difficulty from beginning to end without a pause. And this makes them stand out from the others.”
The Two Anastasias – Davydova and Ermakova – became the most prolific duet winners ever in the first decade
of the 21st Century under the guidance of Two Tatyanas – Danchenko and Pokrovskaya. “Thorough work was
done before the results appeared from 1998 onwards. And when the medals started to come it was easier to find
new talents and attract them to this discipline,” Davydova said. “Russian synchronised swimmers increased the
speed of the routines, keeping nevertheless in mind that we must be able to differentiate each movement. This
tendency was then imitated by the other countries and that is why the discipline has evolved to this demanding
and complex level.”

BJSS Synchro 2010 Page 6