GBritain has never won an Olympic medal in synchronized swimming, a sport formerly known as synchronized swimming. But Kate Shortman, 22, and Izzy Thorpe, 23, are determined to make history in Paris and dispel glib misconceptions.
This year they gave Great Britain their first world championship medal in the sport. While artistic swimming may seem elegant and effortless, making it look effortless is no easy task. The two spend at least 40 hours a week swimming, gymnastics, flexibility, yoga and daily training, as well as weightlifting.
Since most of their three-minute routine is spent underwater, the pair also perform apnea training and can hold their breath for three minutes and 30 seconds.
“I can’t stress enough how difficult this sport is,” Shortman said. “Because it’s so glamorous and we put on costumes, it distracts us from how difficult it is. You have to be very athletic, very fit, flexible and strong. It really covers everything. And, just saying, this The smile is fake.
Thorpe added: “We should smile so you don’t see the pain.”
It helps that the couple have been best friends since elementary school, and incredibly, this is the second generation of the Shortman and Thorpe duo, whose mother just missed the 1996 Olympics.
Izzy’s mother, Karen Thorpe, who coaches and leads the team to Paris, said that although the two grew up together in the same city, neither parent expected this to happen, “but It happened and now Kate is like my other daughter.”
She confirmed how hard women work. “We do it from Monday to Saturday, almost every week,” she said. “They start training in the gym at 8 a.m. with a physical coach. After an hour and a half, they go straight to the pool until 5 p.m. every day.
She added, “They also don’t go home when their Japanese coach Yumiko Tomatsu is out of class. They then have to stay for a video review and focus on making corrections the next day.
Shortman and Thorpe had to train at a local community pool in Bristol with water joggers and community swimmers – they didn’t like the music being too loud.
It will be the pair’s second Olympics appearance and they considered quitting after finishing 14th in Tokyo. It doesn’t help that they haven’t received any lottery funds until recently. Or they often have to work on Sunday after spending the rest of the week training and studying for their degree.
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However, Tomomatsu’s appointment in May 2022 and a sea change in the way the sport is judged drastically changed their prospects. “The old system was purely a judgmental system,” Karen said. “So if your country is strong and has been doing well for many years, you’re probably in the lead.
“But now every move we do has a level of difficulty — just like in gymnastics. So the judges will say, ‘Oh, they’re so high out of the water, they’re doing it in a perfect vertical line,’ and then they can Give us the corresponding score.
“I always knew our girls were super skilled and could do all the hard moves, but they never really got the recognition. But now, if they do exactly what it says on the tin, they’re going to score.
Karen stresses that creativity still plays an important role. “The weighting is more towards the difficulty aspect, but there is also the element of artistic impression, which is the choreography aspect. So we try to be creative in our daily lives.
So what can fans expect when the pair take a swim in Paris? “We have two routines,” Izzy said. “One of them is called Phoenix Rising. It’s about our sport taking on a new form – like it’s rising from the ashes. We also wanted something with a British theme, so the other one was based on Big Ben.
While China is the favorite, don’t be surprised if Team GB takes silver or bronze. “The sport has changed a lot since I started it,” Karen added. “It’s a different game. We used to move much slower or more gracefully underwater, but now it’s super fast and dynamic.
