Two-time Spanish Olympian Ona Carbonell has decided to step away from the pool temporarily again this season and forgo her spot on the 2020 Olympic team to take time for herself, her family and her personal life. Her full statement is available here. Carbonell missed the 2018 season, but returned in 2019 and competed in the technical solo, free solo, free duet, free team and highlight at the world championships.
Let’s Get This Season Started
Spain’s national team started off its Olympic season in Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands, for a sunny training camp and fun activities outside the pool for team bonding.
The Ukrainians are also staying in the sun as much as possible. After a first training camp in sunny Loutraki, Greece, at the beginning of the month, they are now at the Gloria Sports Arena in Antalya, Turkey.
It’s all about team building in the U.S.A! Andrea Fuentes and Anna Voloshyna, the head coaches of the senior and junior teams respectively, organized a treasure hunt to welcome the new swimmers on the teams. A few days later, the senior team and coaches tried out wakeboarding and looked like they all had an absolute blast.
The Canadian team is in Stoneham, Quebec, for its first training bootcamp of the season. The athletes have been posting a lot of behind-the-scenes footage on their Instagram account, which includes (very) early morning runs up and down mountains, kayak trips, pound yoga classes, break dance, and acro yoga.
France wrapped up two weeks of intensive training with Stephan Miermont in Paris to build its new free team routine.
In more Miermont news, Anna Maria and Eirini Alexandri from Austria are in Palm Springs, California, to work with him once more this season for their Olympic duet choreography. Miermont had created their free duet choreography for the 2019 FINA World Championships.
Fashion Week
The Italian team headed to Milan for the Milan Fashion Week to perform in the Francesca Liberatore show.
Got Skills?
The Russian national team has barely started training again, but Varvara Subbotina treated us to a fantastic video of yet another one of her variations of a barracuda boost.
Similarly, Aleksandr Maltsevshowed a beautiful and impressive barracuda spin 720°(+) on his own Instagram account.
Shortly thereafter, Eduard Kim from Kazakhstan, our reigning youth world champion in the mixed duet, took up Maltsev on his “barracuda challenge” and demonstrated two barracuda split boosts.
Anita Alvarez from the U.S. is finding ways to improve and change up her spins in her solo.
Quick Reads
Claudia Holzner from team Canada wrote about her different experiences at each of the four world championships she has competed at in her career so far. She also shared in a separate blog post more details about the 2019 world championships in Gwangju.
