Pittsburgh Artistic Swimming: ‘Being able to swim routines with them is so exciting’
Having an interest in music and dance, 14-year-old Avry Miller of Bethel Park several years ago looked for a sport in which she could express herself.
She found one in a program offered by the Pittsburgh Artistic Swimming team through the Bethel Park Recreation Department at the Bethel Park High School pool.
A mixture of swimming, dance and gymnastics, the sport — formerly known as synchronized swimming — judges performers on technical excellence, artistic impression and synchronization with music. Athletes compete in solo, duet, mixed duet and team events.
The rules and manner of judging are similar to such sports as figure skating and gymnastics.
“What I love about Pittsburgh Artistic Swimming is the people and how teamwork is such an important factor in the sport,” said Avry, a freshman at Bethel Park. “I have met so many people.
“Being able to swim routines with them is so exciting. Another part of the sport I love is the ability to be creative.”
Avry said she and her teammates choose their own songs, constructing routines around them.
“Even when we are shown a new routine a coach has written, we are able to adjust it as a team to fit our style,” she said.
Avry said she prefers upbeat songs because they are much more fun to swim to and are more memorable. She said the team has done multiple routines to the music of pop artist Madonna.
Ava Arnold, 16, of Bethel Park, competed in speed swimming before taking up the artistic version a few years ago. She said such a background is not necessary, but it helped.
“Obviously, you have to have some sort of swimming ability to do our sport,” she said. “Speed swimming granted me the ability to breeze through the basics of artistic swimming like sculling and simple figures and get straight into more difficult skills.
“I did not have to spend time learning proper swimming techniques.”
Ava, a Bethel Park sophomore who attended a USA Artistic Swimming Rising Star Camp last fall at Ohio State, would love to continue the sport in college but said that is not likely to happen because of the scarcity of college teams.
For her routines, she prefers songs from musical theater, in which she also participates.
Her current solo consists of “Lay All Your Love on Me” and “Voulez-Vous” from “ABBA for Orchestra” by Carl Davis.
“My taste in music for routines is not universal,” she said. “My teammate Rachel Xu is doing her solo to a piece from ‘Swan Lake.’
“Sometimes, just freestyling to music is fun as well.”
She said part of the reason she enjoys Pittsburgh Artistic Swimming is because all the teammatesare good friends.
“Being synchronized becomes so much easier when you are able to communicate without words while swimming,” she said. “Plus, we have some pretty great coaches.”
Co-founder and coach Deb Hazlett, of Mt. Lebanon, said
the goals of the team include increasing participation, providing competition, preparing athletes for college careers and encouraging them to stay active in the sport as masters competitors, coaches and judges. Besides competing, the team participates in clinics and community events.
Next on its schedule is the USA Artistic Swimming regional championship tournament May 14-15 in Buffalo, N.Y.
Bethel Park Recreation director Chuck Stover said 10 girls are registered in the program. Masters classes also are offered.
The team meets Tuesday and Thursday evenings and occasionally on Sunday afternoons. The program, which has been at Bethel Park since January 2017, is open
to nonresidents as well.
Ms. Hazlett, who competed under pioneering coach Virginia Grindle in the 1970s at the University of Pittsburgh, said boys are encouraged to join.
“We have not had any boys, but several Pennsylvania teams have boys competing,” she said. “Mixed duet is gaining participants and is similar to pairs competition in figure skating.”
Mr. Stover said the team is a good fit: “It is not a typical recreation program and added more diversity to what we offer.”
For more, call the Bethel Park Recreation Department at 412-831-1328 or go to bethelpark.net/recreation.