--- title: How They Train: Synchronized Swimming with Sean Gregory | TIME description: TIME reporter Sean Gregory joins the women in the USA Olympic synchronized swimming team to experience just how tough the sport really is canonical: https://time.com/video/wTK70mH0/ og:title: How They Train: Synchronized Swimming with Sean Gregory og:description: TIME reporter Sean Gregory joins the women in the USA Olympic synchronized swimming team to experience just how tough the sport really is og:url: https://time.com/video/wTK70mH0/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wTK70mH0/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How They Train: Synchronized Swimming with Sean Gregory twitter:description: TIME reporter Sean Gregory joins the women in the USA Olympic synchronized swimming team to experience just how tough the sport really is twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wTK70mH0/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How They Train: Synchronized Swimming with Sean Gregory > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How They Train: Synchronized Swimming with Sean Gregory [Watch (HLS stream): How They Train: Synchronized Swimming with Sean Gregory](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wTK70mH0.m3u8) (4:33)  _Published 2012-03-22. TIME reporter Sean Gregory joins the women in the USA Olympic synchronized swimming team to experience just how tough the sport really is_ --- Oct 11, 2023 9:07 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [U.S. Swimming Ends Paris Olympics on Top—Just Barely](/video/27pBY2jZ/) ### U.S. Swimming Ends Paris Olympics on Top—Just Barely [Climber Kyra Condie Trains TIME's Sean Gregory on New Olympic Sport](/video/6MqlQjDZ/) ### Climber Kyra Condie Trains TIME's Sean Gregory on New Olympic Sport [How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory](/video/TeZ5hoMc/) ### How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory --- ## Transcript We're kicking each other. We're all really close together. And above water you have to have this poise, like, nothing's wrong, I'm just swimming. I'm not in 17 feet of water. You know, it, it's fine. If it looks easy then we're doing our job correctly. The US National Synchronized Swim team does make this look easy. Maybe that's why every four years the question invitably gets asked. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Is synchronized swimming a real sport? A little bit sharper, though. For anyone who says no, the girls on this team have one response. Try it. [ LAUGH ] Yeah. You get in the pool for 12 hours, you get upside down, hold your breath, and get back to me. I'm Sean Gregory, sports writer for Time. Armed with a waterproof camera, I decided to join the women, in the pool. Not for 12 hours, but long enough to get a few lessons, on what it takes to perform an Olympic caliber routine. [ LAUGH ] They started me off with a simple lesson: how to tread water correctly. Think of it as, like, one, two, one, two, one, well, that's better. A typical day of training for these women involves around eight hours of treading water, but it begins on land with a combination of stretching, weight lifting, and cardio exercises. The connection between the water and what we do on land is actually a lot closer than a lot of people think. If we're not strong on land in general well, then we can't do what we do every day in the water. The team, made up of ten women from around the country, has been working here in Indianapolis for the last four months to perfect this routine. [ SOUND ] Guided by their coach, former Olympic bronze medalist Mayu Fujiki, the team meticulously works through each beat of their routine using a number. And everybody listens to the music a different way. So what we are doing by counting is, like, nailing the moment with the music, so they understand the music but in the same time they know by count one is here two is here and three. Instead of like la la la. So that's one strategy to make them synchronize. [ MUSIC ] I reluctantly followed the team away from the safe edges of the pool and tried to learn a few moves. We started with the common position in a routine called a ballet. Leg if you want. [ LAUGH ]. Ready. [ CROSSTALK ]. [ LAUGH ] It's not easy. You want me to take that? Followed by a brush stroke kick, which swimmers use to thrust themselves out of the water, or in my case, almost drown. Finally they offered to lift me out of the water. Okay. So you can use your hands to kind of stabilize yourself, but your feet are gonna be in our hands. All of your hands. [ LAUGH ] And then what are you going to do to me. And then, then. Typically it is the smallest person on the team, called the flyer, who gets lifted. Not a gangly six- foot- three- inch man with limited aquatic coordination. I should have flipped. [ LAUGH ] And with that my training was done for the day. The women on this team aren't so lucky. They have a heavy regimen between now and the Olympic qualifying tournament, next month in London. [ SOUND ] On top of their 50 hour training week. The synchronized swimming team must pay half of its team budget through fundraising. [ NOISE ] It's not glorious, going to the Olympics, sometimes. Being here by yourselves for eight hours. Just talk about that journey a little bit. Most people don't understand the daily level of sacrifice and. You know occasionally, you run into somebody who gets it and it's really nice to kinda have that respect for a few minutes, but for the most part really we look to each other most of all for support to get through, like, the daily grind. For Time Video, this is an exhausted Sean Gregory in Indianapolis. Never again. 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