Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 8, 1990 TAG: 9007080115
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Scott Blanchard SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Miller, a longtime performer and coach of synchronized swimming, wasn't just thinking of herself.
"Getting water for the girls is like pulling teeth," Miller said of the difficulty in booking time at local pools. "I was so sick of fighting over water."
Such is the lot of the synchronized swimmer - in Virginia, at least. Miller said the sport gets little respect at recreation centers or other swim clubs, which makes it difficult for athletes to practice.
There are seven teams in the state - four in Richmond, two in the Tidewater area and one in Northern Virginia - and the Virginia CorEast State Games drew just 32 performers for the synchronized swimming competition Saturday at Hollins College.
One of those, 66-year-old Barbara Eaton, was a coach, competitor and judge at the Games. A performer since 1950 and a coach since 1961, Eaton now coaches the Tidewater Aqua Aerials.
Her resume is longer than that, however. A native of Bethesda, Md., she says she was behind the first synchronized swimming championship competition in the Washington, D.C., area and organized similar events in Pennsylvania and Virginia. She said she helped start the first Junior Olympic National Championships in Norfolk in 1971 and was the first national chairman for the Synchronized Swimming Junior Olympic Committee. She now serves on the board of directors of U.S. Synchronized Swimming Inc.
She seems wedded to the sport.
"People who love to swim with music, express themselves, the creativity - it's always something new and different," Eaton said, explaining the attraction of the sport. "It's not like swimming from point A to B, where you just do the same thing."
But those who can't swim from A to B need not apply. Roanoker Jenie Lindsey, who competed in the State Games, said performing a three- to four-minute routine is the equivalent of swimming two or three miles. Endurance, though, is just one prerequisite.
"You also have to be flexible, like a gymnast, and you have to have the rhythm of a dancer," Miller said.
Swimmers are judged on technical merit (execution, synchronization and difficulty of routine) and on artistic impression (choreography, musical interpretation and manner or ease of performance).
Competitors - who perform solo, in pairs and in trios - also are expected to showcase certain compulsory movements during their routines, such as extension of legs.
Eaton said the sport got a popularity boost after the 1984 Olympics, held in Los Angeles, but it didn't get the same exposure in '88 in Seoul, South Korea.
"Right now, I think we're at status quo - we're not gaining [in popularity], not declining," said Eaton, who won the figures competition in the Masters 65-70 age group. "We need another shot in the arm."
The Roanoke area might get its injection from Lindsey, a St. Louis native who tried to start a synchronized swimming club in Roanoke a few years ago but took time off to have a baby. Lindsey said she may try to start a club.
"It's such a rare sport to be competent in," she said after finishing second in the figures in the Masters 30-39 division. "I got really teary-eyed [Friday] because I'd been away from it for five years, and [I heard] some of the girls talking about the national team, the Olympics."
Eaton said she shares the same emotional attachment to synchronized swimming. She said some of her pupils are grandchildren of former students. She said U.S. Synchronized Swimming is trying to organize a reunion of former swimmers.
"You start with little chubby kids," she said, "and they grow up to be willowy, gorgeous girls."
by CNB