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Orangeville Synchronized Swimming dazzles with routines

May 2, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

It’s one of a very few sports where holding your breath is part of the activity.

The Orangeville Synchronized Swimming club held a Watershow at the Alder Street pool on Saturday, April 27, to demonstrate their skill in the water and showcase all the hard work they have put into their sport.

Synchronized swimming combines physical fitness, timing, endurance, flexibility, breath control and swimming ability in routines that are performed to music.

While the sport has been around for over 100 years, it did not become an Olympic sport until the 1984 games in Los Angeles.

The Orangeville club has been in existence for 20 years and has members from a wide age group.

“We have around 20 members this year,” said swimming coach Sarah Morrison. “We swim once each week. It’s for people who enjoy swimming and doing routines. Swimmers work in groups of two up to groups of eight.”

While some of the swimmers participate at the recreational level just for the enjoyment of the sport, others have gone on to compete at higher levels of competition.

Synchronized swimming duo Marissa Malow and Samantha Martin have moved up to the provincial level of competition and now swim in Waterloo.

They spend 14 hours per week in the pool.

Marissa, a 12 year-old Orangeville resident has been involved in the sport since she was six.

“It’s my passion. It’s really fun for me because you get to do a bunch of skills,” Marissa said of why she likes the sport. “It fun doing it with your friend. It’s been my sports since I was little so I really wanted to grow in it. It’s the sport that I love.”

It’s a sport that requires timing – especially since a good of the time you’re underwater and you still have to communicate with team members to make sure the routine is completed properly.

Marissa and Samantha said they keep a count going and learn to signal each other under the water.

“In the beginning when we first get our music, before we even touch that we make counts,” Marissa explained. “With our duet, Samantha and me would make up counts with our coach. We would do the routine just with counts. She would get a microphone and we would use an underwater speaker and do the count. After we learn the counts we do it with the music. We watch each other underwater. You kind of just talk under water and after you’ve been a synchronized swimmer for a long time you understand what the others are saying.”

The routines received a very enthusiastic response from visitor who watched the show from the pool gallery.

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