'Harder than it looks': Athletes compete at synchronized swimming provincials in St. John's
Months of hard work and practice paid off for teams of synchronized swimmers from across Newfoundland and Labrador at the provincial championships in St. John's on Sunday.
Athletes gathered at the Memorial University swimming pool to showcase choreographed routines that combined elements of dance, gymnastics and swimming.
Many of the routines were synced to crowd pleasing songs like ABC by the Jackson 5 and medleys of songs from popular artists like Beyonce.
But while the athletes may have made it look easy from the sidelines, swimmers and coaches said there's a lot of intense training that goes into making the act of synchronized swimming look so effortless.
"A lot of people say it's really easy, that you stand on the bottom and it's just like water dancing and you just fool around, but really it's a lot harder than it looks," said 17-year-old athlete Victoria Dowden.
"We have to be super flexible, we need to have our cardio really high … we need to learn how to hold our breath while doing crazy exercises, being upside down moving your legs, while also focusing on the count."
The sport can be a magnet for injuries too.
Dowden listed many side-effects that have more in common with contact sports like football and hockey than swimming.
"I'm actually not swimming because I just got a concussion at the last meet," she said.
"A lot of times you get kicked in the face. We also do our throws where someone jumps off and does back flips and stuff like that, and that's very easy for people to land on you, so it's really easy to get concussions and broken bones."
Some athletes competing nationally
While the sport's popularity has ebbed and flowed over the years in Newfoundland, there are now four teams, in St. John's, Mount Pearl, Conception Bay South and Corner Brook, that compete on the provincial circuit.
Athletes are also beginning to participate at the national level too, said St. John's Sea Stars coach Jackie Hiscock.
"We're slowly working our way up the grids. We have a couple athletes this year that we're hoping to make top 35 this year in Canada and when they do that they will have an invitation to try out for the national team."
But with growth comes tempered expectations: many pools in St. John's aren't equipped to provide the training needed for athletes who want to compete against teams from better equipped provinces, said Hiscock.
"But we're certainly doing our best to promote the sport, and encourage the girls we have, and encourage any newcomers who want to give it a try."
