London 2012 blog

Do you fancy spending a week in an outdoor pool, in Spain in July? Well, of course, my answer was yes, (although when I left last Sunday the whole of UK was like an outdoor pool!)

I have just returned from the Junior European Synchronised Swimming Championships in Calella, a small beach resort on the Costa Brava, where I was the Great Britain judge. The excitement of travelling with the British Junior Synchro Team where many of the athletes were competing in their first major meet, was almost tangible.

Jaz, Asha, Helen, Ellie, Jenny, Beth, Vicky, Tash, Lisa & Emily have been training together in Synchro’s centralised venue for just 5 weeks. Lolli, their Italian coach, along with her assistants Jessica from Canada and Britain’s Kate Coupar had been challenging the athletes with demanding 8 hour training days, learning 4 new routines and getting them ready to face the tough European competition.

European Synchro is very strong with Russia dominating, Spain are in the top 3 in the world along with Italy, Greece and France all in the top 10 were going to be tough opponents. These countries have been established at the top for years and their squads have been training together for at least 12 months. How were our team going to do after just 5 weeks?

Well – I was exceptionally proud of their 8th in combo event (that’s when all 10 athletes swim to a completely free routine) 9th in free team (only 8 athletes swim) and 11th in the duet, these last two events being the Olympic events.

It’s always tough judging your own country, but as judges we are also evaluated – any suggestion of bias and we’re off the panel, so lots of pressure. But I managed to give them the right score and get them in the right order, so was asked to judge finals. Great - well sort of - it just means a few more hours sitting still in the mid-day sun smothered in sun block, with a wet towel round my neck trying to keep cool.

The competition pool was great, a 50 metre pool, with large spectator area, hotels within walking distance and all in the middle of a tourist destination! It was a bit shallow for Synchro – the minimum depth should be 2.5m so the acrobatic lifts and throws can be done within the rules (ie not touching the bottom).

Coaches are becoming more ambitious with these moves and as the athletes have become fitter and stronger over the years, the opportunities for more height, more somersaults, handstands seem endless. Sadly, for Russia, the pool was only 2.2m. They were penalised for deliberate use of the bottom in the duet event costing them the gold medal, much to the delight of Greece who are the first country other than Russia to win Gold at a duet event for over 10 years.

What made this competition so special though was the knowledge that several of these athletes are likely to be competing in 2012. They have improved dramatically in just 5 weeks. Four of them, (Jaz, Helen, Ellie & Beth) have been making plans to leave home and change schools and colleges in order to become full time athletes from September. There is something very humbling, (and I have to say I’m envious!) to hear these young girls making such huge life decisions in order for the chance to compete at the Olympic Games. And it wouldn’t have happened if London hadn’t won the right to host the Games.

So all I’ve got to do now is to tell the venues team to make sure the pool is deep enough!

It was great to come back to find that the National Lottery had launched their first online game raising money specifically for the 2012 Games, featuring...you guessed it...Synchronised Swimming!