Synchronized swimming

“I came back the next week and then the next, the camaraderie and the challenge satisfying needs so submerged I hadn’t even realized they were there. At times, I thought the sport would defeat me—if not with its dizzying upside-down spins then surely the dangerously long stretches between gasps of air. For months I left the four-hour practices with quivering legs and an appetite previously seen only on Animal Planet.”

“Each week, though, when I slipped into the water for class, I felt stronger and sexier—a chimeric morphing of a mermaid and Michael Phelps. The day I swam the length of the pool underwater on a single breath, I felt like I could accomplish anything. After a semester, my classmates encouraged me to join the DC-area synchronized swimming team. I looked for excuses: I wasn’t good enough. I was too busy. Worst of all, I would have to perform in a swimsuit! But a nagging part of me wanted to know if I could make it. So after weeks of deliberation, I went to a practice.”

“After my first swim with the Peaches, I rode the subway home feeling effervescent. I was bubbling with excitement about being back in the water. Did it obsessively track my progress through an app or give me the next-day soreness of my kettlebell classes? No, but it reminded me that sometimes being part of a team and a community of like-minded individuals is what draws us to group exercise in the first place. It lifts us up.”