History
The great Australian swimmer, Annette Kellerman, planted the first seed of what was to become synchronized swimming when she performed "water ballet" in a glass tank at the New York Hippodrome in 1907.
Katherine "Kay" Curtis didn't see the performance, but she may well have been inspired by newspaper accounts. As a student at the University of Wisconsin in 1915, Curtis began experimenting with underwater swimming stunts. The following year, she was instrumental in having synchronized swimming added to the school's physical education program for women.
Curtis moved on to the University of Chicago, where she founded a water ballet club in 1923. Sixty of her swimmers, known as the "Modern Mermaids," performed at the 1934 Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago, attracting national and international publicity.
The sport quickly became popular among young women in the Chicago area and Curtis developed rules for competition, based essentially on the scoring methods used in gymnastics, diving, and figure skating.
The first recorded competition was held May 27, 1939, between Chicago Teacher's College, coached by Curtis, and Wright Junior College, also in Chicago.
Shortly afterward, synchronized swimming received another major publicity boost from Billy Rose's Aquacade, formed for the 1939 New York World's Fair and featuring Olympic swimmers Eleanor Holm and Johnny Weismuller. The Aquacade was so popular that it was also booked at the 1940 World's Fair in San Francisco, starring Esther Williams.
The Central Association of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) staged the first multi-team competition in Wilmette, Illinois, on March 1, 1940. The following year, the AAU officially accepted synchronized swimming as a competitive sport for dual and team events.
Three Chicago clubs competed in the AAU's first trial national championship in Neenah, Wisconsin, in August of 1942. Further national competition was delayed by World War II, but in 1946 the first formal national championships were conducted by the AAU.
The solo event was added to the national championship program in 1950. (Some have objected that "solo synchronized swimming" is an oxymoron, since it takes two to synchronize. In fact, the performance is synchronized to music, not to another person's movements.)
International Competition
Initially confined almost entirely to the Midwest, synchronized swimming spread to Canada soon after World War II and North American enthusiasts soon set out to convert the rest of the world.
U. S. and Canadian swimmers demonstrated the sport at the first Pan-American Games, in 1951, and at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. So many countries became interested that the Federation Internationale De Natation Amateur (FINA), which rules worldwide aquatic sports, added a division for synchronized swimming in 1954.
The first formal international competition took place at the 1955 Pan-American Games. Synchronized swimming was dropped from the 1959 Pan-Am program, restored in 1963, dropped again in 1967, and then restored for good in 1971.
The sport's international status was solidified when it was included on the program of the FINA's first World Aquatic Championships in 1973, along with swimming, diving, and water polo.
As a result of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, which mandated that Olympic sports must have their own governing bodies rather than falling under the AAU's umbrella, United States Synchronized Swimming, Inc., was established in 1979.
Synchronized swimming became an Olympic event at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, with solo and duet competition. They were replaced by competition among eight-member teams in 1996, but the duet event was restored to the Olympic program in 2000.
