Japan Championships
Need something to watch to keep you entertained or to practice your judging skills? Japan‘s got you covered. The nation hosted its national championships over the past four days, and the entire meet was live streamed on YouTube. All replays are linked below.
The senior national team swam in all four Olympic events, and showed off new choreographies in technical team and free duet, and majorly revamped routines in technical duet and free team.
- Technical Solos (women) – Yukiko Inui swims at 40:00.
- Free Solos (women)
- Technical & Free Solos (men)
- Technical Duets – Yukiko Inui and Megumu Yoshida swim at 1:32:00
- Free Duets & Mixed Duets (same draw) – Yukiko Inui and Megumu Yoshida swim their new Robots choreography at 2:24:00
- Technical Teams – National team swims at 58:20
- Free Teams – National team swims at 1:34:00
- Free Combinations
- Highlights
Canada Updates
In brief since the last Sync Up:
- October 19 – Five Current and Former Athletes Break Silence About Allegedly Toxic Environment
- October 30 – Canada Artistic Swimming Releases Results of Independent Review
- October 31 – Gabor Szauder Remains Head Coach
- November 3 – CEO Jackie Buckingham Defends Federation’s Response
- November 5 – CAS’ Response Heavily Criticized
- November 8 – Petition Started in support of the athletes and to ask for immediate action for a safe training environment. As of today, the petition has nearly 2,500 signatures.
Once again if you wish to keep up to date with the developing story in Canada and anything related to it, you can refer to this article.
Back Together Again
- Michelle Zimmer is back in Germany‘s duet. She joins Marlene Bojer after Daniela Reinhardt was forced to retire due to an injury. Zimmer has competed in the solo, duet and team events in major junior or senior competitions since 2013. She served as the alternate to the Bojer/Reinhardt duet until the 2018 European Championships, after which she decided to retire. After one season away from the pool, she realized she missed the sport, and just knew she had to return when the duet opportunity opened up.
- Spanish Olympian Marga Crespi is once again helping out Colombia‘s duet of Estefania Alvarez and Monica Arango. Crespi has already worked with the pair in the past, most notably ahead of the 2016 Olympics, where Alvarez and Arango made history for the nation as the first synchronized swimmers to qualify.
Training Camps
- While some of us common people are in lockdown again, we were able to live vicariously through the Russian senior team as it traveled to Dubai for two weeks for its annual training camp. Tatiana Gayday has joined the group of 12, while Maya Gurbanberdieva seems to be returning smoothly to the mixed duet from her shoulder surgery last year.
- Liechtenstein‘s duet of Lara Mechnig and Marluce Schierscher received the recommendations of Spain’s former head coach Anna Tarrés at the beginning of the month. The pair later worked on its choreography with Simona Ricotta from Italy.
In the News
- Spain‘s head coach Mayuko Fujiki gave an extensive interview to the Tokyo 2020 website. The articles discusses the current Spanish team, its goals and its future. The piece also describes Fujiki’s Olympic experience in 1996, followed by her coaching ventures in Spain, the U.S. and China.
- Vlada Chigireva, 2016 Olympic champion and current member of the Russian team, spoke to RT in depth about her career, how she’s dealt with her curvy figure and short height to make it to the top of the sport, and what some of her other projects outside of synchro are.
Tokyo Aquatics Centre is Ready
The 2020 Olympic pool was inaugurated at the end of October, and it’s majestic!
Article by Christina Marmet
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