Lipstick and smiles mask underwater ordeal

By Simon Baskett

MADRID (Reuters) - Synchronized swimming is perhaps the most deceptive of all Olympic sports.

Behind the lipstick, hair gel, fixed smiles and sequined swimsuits lurks a lung-bursting test of athleticism, artistry, and technical skill.

When the sport made its first appearance at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, its detractors mocked its inclusion and compared it to the Busby Berkeley 1940s Hollywood water spectaculars popularized by former swimmer Esther Williams.

One look at the training schedule of the swimmers, however, is enough to divest any remaining skeptics of the misapprehension that this is a lightweight Olympic discipline.

"We train between eight and nine hours a day," Spain's leading Synchronized swimmer Gemma Mengual told Reuters television at a recent pre-Olympic competition in Barcelona.

"In the morning we work on the physical elements and do some work in the gym. Then we are into the water, we grab some lunch and then get back in the water until 7 or 8 at night until everything is perfect or near perfect."

The precision routines require swimmers to hold their breath for periods of more than a minute while carrying out a succession of dizzying turns, kicks and flips, most of which are done while upside down in the water.

When they do emerge, they have to resist the temptation to gasp for air and keep smiling as they attempt to make it all appear effortless. Little wonder, then, that Synchronized swimmers are seen as a breed apart.