'This is crazy if you think about it, no?' Inside the world of artistic swimming.
LOS ANGELES — The longer you stay underwater, kicking your feet, sculling your arms against all that heaviness and bright blue, the worse it gets. Legs cramp, fingers tingle and lungs burn as the brain screams for oxygen.
The trick is staying calm, accepting the pain.
Daniella Ramirez explains this in the simplest terms. Built small and thin, her dark hair tucked beneath a swim cap, she suggests pressing your tongue to the roof of your mouth so you don't panic and gulp water. One of her teammates, Natalia Vega, says, "It might sound silly but relaxing your face helps."
All the women on the U.S. artistic swimming team have a favorite method for holding their breath longer.
Their sport — which used to be known as synchronized swimming until officials changed the name several years ago — has been dismissed as the Olympic version of some Esther Williams film from the 1940s and 1950s and famously mocked by Martin Short and Harry Shearer in a "Saturday Night Live" skit. The Kabuki-style makeup, forced smiles and gelled hair, the nose clips like your aunt used to wear in the pool. Who could take it seriously?
But no one laughed when American swimmer Anita Alvarez pushed herself too hard at the world championships in June, passing out during solo competition, her
