Who is on the USA synchronized swimming team at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics?
The USA synchronized swimming team are competing at this summer's Tokyo Olympics. We take a look at the swimmers who made the final team for the event.
The sychronized swimming team for the USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is as follows: Anite Alvarez, Paige Ariezaga, Nicole Dzurko, Megumi Field, Nicole Goot, Hannah Heffernan, Anya Melson, Daniella Ramirez, Ruby Remati, Abby Remmers, Lindi Schroeder and Anite Alvarez.
Anite Alvarez
Olympic Experience
2016 Olympic Games (Rio), 9th (Duet)
Paige Ariezaga
Career Highlights
2021 FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final: 4th (Team Tech), 4th (Team Free)
Nicole Dzurko
Career Highlights
2020-21 Senior National Team Training Athlet
Megumi Field
Career Highlights
2016 UANA Pan American Championships: 1st (Team)
2017 UANA Pan American Championships: 2nd (Team), 1st (Duet), 1st (Solo), 1st (Figures)
Nicole Goot
Career Highlights
2021 FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final: 4th (Team Tech), 4th (Team Free)
Hannah Heffernan
Career Highlights
2021 FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final: 4th (Team Tech), 4th (Team Free)
Anya Melson
World Championship Experience
2020 FINA Junior World Championships
Other Career Highlights
2019 UANA Pan American Artistic Swimming Championships: 2nd (Tech Team) 3rd (Free Team) 2nd (Combo)
Daniella Ramirez
Career Highlights
2021 FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final: 4th (Team Tech), 4th (Team Free)
Ruby Remati
Career Highlights
2021 FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final: 4th (Team Tech), 4th (Team Free), 5th (Free Duet)
Abby Remmers
Career Highlights
2021 FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final: 4th (Team Tech), 4th (Team Free)
Lindi Schroeder
World Championship Experience
2019 Team (member and finalist)
2016 Junior World Championship Team (member and finalist)
Other Career Highlights
2021 FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final: 4th (Duet Tech), 5th (Duet Free), 4th (Team Tech), 4th (Team Free)
Preparation halted
Most Olympic athletes saw their preparations for Tokyo 2020 upended by the pandemic, but perhaps none more so than artistic swimmers, previously known as synchronized swimmers.
Closed borders, lockdowns and social distancing were alien concepts to athletes accustomed to being inches apart and, quite literally, in sync.
"We need to be super close," says US artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez. "Which is hard with the whole covid thing."
"It definitely was an extra challenge for us. We’re not individual athletes," Alvarez says. “Other athletes who are team sports, they can train individually and they can come together. For us, it’s so important to have that connection with your duet partner and your teammates, to be able to synchronize and to be on the same note."
Impossible to do synchronizing work
For many athletes, Zoom workouts replaced in-person training, but because of the delays inherent to video calls, it was impossible to do any synchronizing work, US swimmer Linda Schroeder says. The team focused instead on flexibility and strength, training virtually for four or five hours per day.
"I remember the first two weeks, all of my joints just hurt the whole time because they weren’t used to any type of impact," Schroeder says.