SYNCHRONISED SWIMMING IS ALL ABOUT TEAMWORK!

✦ With every swimmer´s movements perfectly timed, synchronised swimming is a fascinating sport that keeps your eyes riveted!

Synchronised swimming is simply one of the most fascinating sports around, and beyond the technical feats, it is the synchronicity that keeps one riveted. Many of us have friends or family who swim as a sport or hobby, but it's not every day that we meet someone who actually does synchronised swimming seriously.

Brilliant's Content Writer Yann Tyng in her other job as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher in

Spain has had the opportunity to meet all kinds of people, and she got to know a young girl who has dedicated 14 years of her life to synchronised swimming. What's the world of synchronised swimming really like?

Born to love the water

Elena is a 20-year-old Spanish student currently doing her second year of Nursing in the university. She started

You have to really want it

I wanted to know if synchronised swimming required certain special physical traits or characteristics. What Elena said I found really inspiring.

doing synchronised swimming when she was just six, thanks to her mother Milagros. Milagros was clear she wanted a team sport for her daughter. Milagros found a place where Elena could start doing more intensive swimming that would allow her to be chosen by a school to do synchronised swimming. In just a year, Elena was selected to join the synchronised swimming group.

c"It's not so much the physical aspects, but the desire to learn and improve every single day. Anyone can train to better their physical conditions, but this hunger to go further every day is not something that everybody possesses."

"You can always train more when it comes to flexibility or strength, but to bear with the difficulties and to continue wanting to improve and also to work well in a team, those are more important skills to have," explained Elena. Right now, Elena herself has become a trainer, teaching young adolescents to do synchronised swimming as a hobby. Not everyone necessarily wants to or can do synchronised swimming seriously. Those who wish to do synchronised swimming at the very top national levels have to go through strict exams before they can get there. In Spain, those who get to this level are in the Royal Spanish Swimming Federation.

You have to put in the hours

During a part of her training period, she trained 5 days a week, with training sessions starting at 6:00am7:30am (yes you read that right... in the MORNING) and then 6:00pm9:30pm on weekdays, and training on Saturdays was from 8:00am-1:00pm. During summer and holiday periods, training hours intensified.

The hours were scheduled so the children could still attend regular school that started at 8:45am. Elena was training an average of 24 hours per week.

I was really curious to know what motivated Elena all those years to wake up at such ungodly hours and jump into a pool of cold water.

"To be honest, I didn't really like getting out of bed that early! The thing is, knowing that I would be with my friends from the synchronised swimming club made me want to get up and get going. The relationship I have with these girls in the club is really different from what I have with my friends from school. We share a very unique, strong bond together."

And there we go. The all powerful human connection. "With my friends in the synchronised swimming club, we practically grew up together and we shared the same worries, fears, goals, desires. It's just not the same as what I have with my school friends. I'm a lot closer to my friends in the synchronised swimming club. They are a very special group of people to me."

Sport creating new hope and friendship

Hanging up the swimsuit

It must be serendipity that I managed to interview Elena now because she said this would be her last year doing synchronised swimming. She has clearly done way more than many have in this sport, and even taking part in the top national championships, and having a total of 45 medals over the years. Next year she would be in her third year of Nursing, which is very much her vocation now. Synchronised swimming has been an important part of her growing up years, and now she is focusing on building her career in nursing.

She's still happy right now to continue swimming mainly because she treasures the time she has left with her synchronised swimming friends and they always have a good time together.

Many professional synchronised swimmers or those who do it professionally stop at 26 or 27, so it is a tough sport to continue with age. If she could start her life all over again, Elena would still choose synchronised swimming. "Working in a team for the same goal is a huge drive for me and I absolutely love it."

Nerves of steel

For Milagros, while she is clearly proud of Elena's achievements, she confessed that at one point she really wanted her to stop synchronised swimming. The training itself was tough and the trainers were even tougher. Milagros felt it was just too much for a child. So for parents whose children are involved in tough competition sports, they too need nerves of steel to allow them to keep going even though they'd much rather their children stop.

Just keep swimming!

What I took away from listening to Elena share her experience is not the fame or pain of top level competitions but of her finding a group of people who shared the same passion and goal as she did, and to grow up together, supporting each other and building such a special and strong bond that allows them to see past the physical and mental challenges of what they do.

And the message Elena leaves us with is simply this - it's not about being special, or among the elite or being lucky to be born a certain way. If you're willing to learn and to improve every single day, you'll go very far. And as a very famous and well-loved fish once wisely said, "Just keep swimming!" Love sport? Find out what to look forward to in 2023!

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