Our winningest team ever: synchronized swimming
Moving as one, these athletes make it look easy. Don’t be fooled. They put in monumental work to become champions.
![During a performance, three synchronized swimmers raise their arms in a V shape while holding themselves upright in a pool. They all smile, with hair slicked back and matching swimsuits, only the shoulders of which can be seen above the water.](/sites/default/files/styles/16_9/public/2024-07/synchronized-swimming-OSAM_0.jpg.webp?itok=SxOsPGTi)
While audience members enjoy the artistry, synchronized swimmers are powering through their routines with incredible precision and sheer strength. Here, from left, Hannah Heffernan, Emma Spott and Emily Armstrong perform at regionals in February. (Photo from The Ohio State University)
Team changes name to “artistic swimming”
The Department of Athletics has announced the synchronized swimming program will now compete under the name of artistic swimming. The name change aligns with the sport’s rebrand on both the national and international levels.
Many people don’t realize the swimmers do the whole routine without touching the bottom of the pool, notes Victoria Carlson ’24, who swam with the team for five seasons.
The training is demanding. Gaylard recalls hitting the weight room at 6:30 a.m. three days a week, plus running, stretching and, of course, spending hours each day in the pool. It’s a regimen that requires up to 20 hours a week, with even more practice when other students are away on break.
Gaylard calls the performance experience “nothing but straight intensity,” with legs flying and swimmers sometimes colliding underwater. “You’re thinking about a million things,” she says, and milliseconds matter.
Team members can develop an almost eerie sense of what’s going on around them. Gaylard recalls nose clips coming off and teammates passing a spare underwater while continuing their routine. “There’s no time for that, but somehow, it can work.”
Carlson appreciates the many facets of the sport. “I love that it’s creative, and it kind of combines strength and grace and flexibility,” she says.
Along with the high expectations that come with any Ohio State varsity sport, the team’s remarkable accomplishments can result in pressure, Vargo-Brown acknowledges.
“We’re expected to have excellence, and I completely buy into that,” she notes. But she emphasizes to her athletes that the journey is important, as are the strong personal connections team members build. When alumni visit, they don’t mention the championships as much as the shared experiences, she says.
“We are bonded through such unique experiences and hard training days,” Carlson says. She recalls enjoying long bus rides to meets and trekking across a deserted campus to the pool when classmates got a snow day.
The swimmers also note the skills they gained outside the pool. Gaylard says she didn’t know until after college how a national championship would translate to the job market. “Employers see what you did, and they know what you had to do every day.”
Of course, they’re all fierce competitors — and, don’t get them wrong, winning is hugely rewarding, too. A national title, Gaylard says, means “everything you did paid off.”
Today’s team members are very much aware of the legacy, Carlson says, recognizing the championship teams that came before them and hoping to pass on that culture.
“We have the motto, ‘Respect the past, defend the present, protect the future.’”