For serious. USA Synchro Team member (and Teamusa.org guest blogger) Andrea Nott, who’ll represent the USA in both the duet and team competitions in Beijing, shares her thoughts on what it’s like to be one week out from the start of the Olympic Games. Here’s an excerpt:
“I have always considered myself focused on my Olympic goals, but the closer and closer we get to it, the less and less I think about anything else at all hours of the day. It’s even getting harder to fall asleep at night.”
Andrea (who’s featured in Sync or Swim) will be blogging at Teamusa.org in the weeks to come. Stay tuned for more of her Olympic updates! Oh, and GO TEAM!
Andrea Nott and duet partner Christina Jones captured Gold at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio.
Nice interview in Cincinnati Weekly with 2004 U.S. Olympic Synchronized Swimmer Becky Jasontek. There are lots of great answers to questions, Olympic and otherwise, but this one’s my favorite:
WHAT MOVIE DO YOU WATCH AND REWATCH?
Probably the film by the documentary crew that followed my crew around the Olympics. I just got a copy of it. I’ve been to two different premieres. It’s a documentary called Sync or Swim.
Thanks, Becky! We’re flattered.
Caption: In October 2004, Olympic bronze medalist and former Loveland resident Becky Jasontek was honored during a ceremony at her alma mater, Mount Notre Dame.
Need to brush up on Olympic Synchro? Head on over to Reuters FACTBOX and check out their cliff notes version the sport. You will be tested on this information.
In just two short weeks, amazing athletes from all over the world will walk in the Opening Ceremony at the Beijing Olympic Games. The following week the synchronized swimming competition (and other aquatic events) will begin in the Water Cube - a stunning sight to behold. Seems like it’d be worth the ticket price just to be inside that giant membrane structure…and for the synchro, of course.
Four years ago today, the NYC-based Improv Everywhere took to Washington Square Park posing as The New York Synchronized Swimming Team at the Olympic Trials, hoping to compete in the Athens Games. The 16 swimmers wore matching goggles and caps and presented their choreographed routine to a crowd of amused and confused onlookers. Check out the photos and video below of the aquatic spectacle. That’s funny, I don’t remember seeing them at the competition in Greece.
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Need to see it for yourself? Let’s go to the video “tape.”
BTW, if you want more Improv Everwhere check out this amazing “Mission.”
I came across this on Flickr. A dentist in California is improving the 2008 Teams’ smiles…one bleach tray at a time.
Members of the U.S. Olympic Synchronized Swimming team gather round Dr. Ricardo M. Perez in his Pleasant Hill, Calif. office, Wednesday, July 23, 2008, as he prepares to take a dental impression from team member Janet Culp. Perez is supplying the team with custom-fitted bleaching trays free of charge, so that they can brighten their smiles before their performances in Beijing next month. Team members are, from left, Brooke Abel, Meghan Kinney, Annabelle Orme, Kim Probst, Kate Hoover, Jillian Penner, Becky Kim and head coach, two-time gold medalist Tammy McGregor. (D. Ross Cameron/The Oakland Tribune
2004 Olympic Synchronized Swimmer Kendra Zanotto (who appears in Sync or Swim) was denied a work visa by the Chinese consulate to travel to Beijing as a reporter for the Games. Though the consute didn’t give a reason, the firm that had hired Zanotto told her that “the government was uncomfortable with the affiliation to Team Darfur.” Team Darfur is a non-profit organization (co-founded by Olympic gold medalist speed skater Joey Cheek and UCLA water polo player Brad Greiner) as an international coalition of athletes committed to raising awareness about and bringing an end to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. The organization’s mission was to bring attention to Darfur without calling for a boycott of the Games. Kendra sent a letter of appeal to the colsulate last week. No word yet on the liklihood of them reversing their decision.
