What Creative Swimmers Want You Knew About This Completely Grueling Olympic Sport

Whereas lots of people suppose inventive swimming is delightfully antiquated—a bunch of “bathing beauties” in floral swim caps and cherry-lipped smiles—that concept is a drained outdated stereotype that Daniella Ramirez, a Staff USA inventive swimmer set to compete on the 2024 Olympic Video games, is sick of listening to. She’s amassed a TikTok following along with her post-performance, ASMR-esque “get unready with me” movies, and he or she’s hoping her content material in the end brings extra consideration to, and respect for, a grueling (typically harmful) sport she’s spent her whole life—fairly actually, her mother and grandmother have been athletes too—perfecting.

Ramirez not too long ago spoke with SELF on what it takes to compete in inventive swimming at an Olympic degree; why she’s uninterested in misogynistic, sexualized associations of the game; how scary being inverted underwater can truly be; and different issues she needs extra folks knew.

SELF: In inventive swimming, there’s a lot emphasis on artistry and wonder—in a predominantly feminine sport. Do you typically really feel like outsiders don’t take it as severely as they need to due to this?

Daniella Ramirez: I really feel like my objective as a content material creator has at all times been to make our sport extra revered and put it within the limelight—to point out folks how arduous it truly is. Folks are inclined to affiliate inventive swimming with Esther Williams, or girls diving right into a pool sideways in a line. It’s at all times tremendous hypersexualized, or we’re within the again simply being fairly. It’s not like that. We’re not showgirls who contact the underside of the pool, put an arm and a leg up, and look good. I feel it’s very irritating for me to speak about as a result of it’s so ingrained into American Hollywood that synchronized swimming is background dancing for a pool social gathering. There are a number of misconceptions there.

Staff USA, together with Daniella Ramirez, competing on the Doha 2024 World Aquatics Championships.

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In order that’s one frequent false impression about inventive swimming—which you could stand in your ft underwater throughout competitors?

Folks at all times suppose we contact the underside, however I’ve by no means, ever touched the underside of the pool in a routine, ever. What’s one other good false impression? The freaking flower caps. Can we finish it with the flower caps? Please put that in there. Please finish flower caps.

Apart from outdated sexist media associations, why do you suppose some folks have such a misunderstanding of the game?

Whenever you have a look at somebody like Simone Biles, I really feel prefer it’s simpler to grasp simply how arduous her sport is as a result of it’s on land, and we all know how physics works. Lots of people are inclined to suppose swimming itself is simple, but it surely’s tremendous arduous as it’s. Now as a substitute of swimming backwards and forwards, think about going up and down too, and treading water. That’s inventive swimming.

In Paris, you and your teammates can be within the pool competing for roughly three to three-and-a-half minutes at a time (on three consecutive days). How lengthy does it take to arrange for these performances?

Main as much as the competitors, we’re coaching within the pool for about two hours a day, three days every week, for one efficiency. However that’s simply time within the water—we do a ton of different exercises, like CrossFit, however with our mouths taped to assist with breath management since we’re underwater a lot. We wish to guarantee that our lungs are actually, actually sturdy. We additionally do a number of weight coaching with excessive reps and fairly low weights. Lengthy earlier than a contest, we’ll additionally do regular swimming—we’ll swim laps for 3 hours a day at some factors.

Staff USA, together with Daniella Ramirez, competing on the Doha 2024 World Aquatics Championships.

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Talking of your respiratory, you and your teammates spend a *lot* of time underwater—typically half of your efficiency! Has it gotten simpler through the years as you’ve grown in your sport?