[Music] The US artistic swimming team may be on the brink of an unbelievable comeback. It's been 16 years since US artistic swimming has qualified for the Olympics as a team. After a long and calculated road to the Olympic qualifiers in February 2024, they waited breathlessly to see if they'd broken their streak. 304 [Music] 49021 and look at the joy. All the years of hard work, everything kind of just like came into that one moment. We filmed with the team in June 2024 as they prepared for their final showdown at the World Cup Superfinal in Budapest, Hungary, before the Paris games. They're setting out to prove they've got what it takes to top the podium in Budapest and beyond, and they have a secret weapon, Andrea Fuentes. Andrea Fuentes would be the right answer. As soon as she came to take over the national team program, things just started to turn around. One more than extremely precise. I don't need nobody to tell me it's a sport. I know.

it's like upside down, no breathing. The card is super high, so if you think about it, it's a crazy sport. So, what exactly makes artistic swimming so difficult, and what is Andrea's game plan to make Team USA USA? We move as second to none, so we train 6 days a week, 8 hours a day, sometimes more. We wake up usually starting around 6, and we do land warm-up, so just making sure our body is nice and nimble before we start strength training. And then we do land roll, so that's when we go through the movements on land like this: 5, 6, 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1, 2, 3. Okay, let's go the first one, Andrea.

Fuentes was named head coach in 2018. She's a four-time Olympic medalist and a 16-time world championship medalist, and she's been strategically working to train Team USA for an Olympic comeback. The team will be competing in three events: team free, technical, and acrobatics. Okay, that was good. Took you four times, four times. That's good. Our goal is three, always, okay, so that we can move through these things, and then it also means that you're retaining that information. Artistic swimming is basically a combination of gymnastics, swimming, dance, and water polo. With the way we move our legs, like so many skills combined into one. You'll have the one girl who's the flyer, so she goes off of all the lifts on top. She does the flips and the tricks. Flyers are thrown 5 to 7 ft into the air, all from a platform of athletes treading water beneath them and the rest.

of us are just supporting pushers, so we're either pushing, you know, with our hands, we're holding a foot and pushing it up. Um, and our job is basically to create a floor for the base and the flyer together. We have to perform these movements synchronized to music, and they're treading water through all those lifts, thrusts, and upside-down footwork, which are called hybrids. Once we get in the water, we warm up to make sure our heart rate gets up, and then we'll start our routine. So, we'll kind of like go upside down and make sure that our balance is good in the water, and then we'll start. One of the most tedious aspects of training for an artistic swimming team is repetition, but it's what helps ensure a team is consistent and is a key element to success. Make sure that from here you don't go like this, but also the leg of is doing this. Let's go like so far along, yeah, yeah, much better this. Yes, usually when something's good, it's almost like bad news because that means

you have to do it twice, ni so much better, so when something's good, they're like, okay, let's make sure it wasn't look. One of the standout players under Andrea this year is Danela Ramirez. She's a third-generation artistic swimmer and two-time bronze medalist at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships. This is the last steps, the last 100 m. Yes, you're not giving up, you're going for it, Max. Yes, all your strength. 5, 6, 7, 8, 2, 3, your left arm. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1, 3, 5, 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1. Yeah, this time give it up, give it up. [Music] High, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. [Music] Your do guys only one H. Let's go, let's [Music] go, let's go, let's go, yes. We now move together D.

with there. Let's go. Yes, see. Let's go now. Who are, who is winning them? Are you? Let's go. St, St, St. Up, up. You go, you go. Forward, forward. Yes, yes. And now, now. More, more, more. Yes, we, we're having moments of brilliance, but not at the same time. I, no, no. It's because you have your leg flying, so it goes forward. Try to touch the, your knee, and then you will not have this problem. And you join with a, to, you know, like, like this, and turn with this part inside, and make the, to go vertical. Noticeably missing from today's practice is veteran Anita Alvarez, who's been on the national team for nearly a decade. Anita is another secret weapon for Andrea, along with Daniela. She's a two-time Olympian who medaled in duets at Tokyo in 2020 and at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. And she's currently recovering from a hamstring injury. It's frustrating from an athlete's point of view, but I had, yeah, shorter practice today, but trying to keep, like, the breath.

works, so I'm upside down, holding my breath for the same amount of time, but just not moving my leg as much. The average human can hold their breath for 30 to 90 seconds, but some experienced synchronized swimmers can train to hold their breath for up to 5 minutes. When you're upside down, um, let's say that the maximum amount of time underwater is like 20-25 seconds, which seems easy, but when you have your heart rate at 200 beats per minute, you really feel the need for breathing. That's one of the trickiest parts of our sport that people don't realize is we're having to hold our breath, but at the same time, we're having to think about and do so many other things. Like, we have to move and be on count. Goggles are not permitted during competitions, so swimmers do all this with the added difficulty of keeping their eyes open underwater. We have to be spotting our teammates and make sure that we're in the perfect spacing in line with this person when we put our

legs up. That's called a hybrid, and those are worth the most just because of difficulty scores. A hybrid is defined as having a combination of two or more movements performed with lower limbs with intentional apnea, in other words, underwater with the head below hip level. Remember, we're getting a four on those. It up. Yes, you can turn a little bit further in. In addition to pattern changes, teams can also earn higher scores by traveling during a [Music] hybrid. I think this routine is the most challenging, probably physically. It's the hardest to go into because you're underwater probably the longest, like the longest chunks of time you're underwater, and it's a lot shorter than the other ones, so it's a lot more intense. So, we have to pack in everything all at the same time, and there's no really time for rest. To help perfect their form, technique, and execution, the team uses underwater cameras to capture the routines for playback. That was not bad. That was not bad. Our acrobatics coach is coming at 12.

and we're going to work on acrobatics with a camera that has the ability to film underwater and above the water so we can see what's going on underwater to correct for the blunders. There are so many more moves, but the eye can't catch all the minute details. That's why you see coaches using iPads and every kind of camera technology possible. When you can catch all of it, it makes the final product even greater. We have a guest here today, which is Tammy McGregor, Olympic gold medalist in our sport. Yeah, so with video, sometimes looking at it almost makes it worse because it makes you feel like you look bad, so like your confidence goes a little bit down. But having her tell you to do something, I think, and exaggerating that correction really makes things better, especially with extension, just like really activating the quads, like making sure your hamstrings are really activated. Like having her here has been really productive for us, so we've just been trying to listen and

absorb everything from her, so that was pretty much our whole practice. But because she's here, we have to make sure that we do the hard stuff too. I think the jump could be a little more aggressive into that one, right? 'Cause you've got a little bit more fatigue than you do for the first thrust, so way good one, nice. This second is so much better since we Dan you better to get your feet under last, and you're doing much better on the counts of the butterfly, but I still feel like Joy instead of doing it like you do the F fish. Yeah, I mean stretch it up. We were doing element butterfly, and I really was screwing it up today, so Tammy was yelling at me today, but it's all good. Like, it's a correction that I had yesterday that is transferring over today, and I got it like 50% of the time, so yeah, just straightened it out between the coaches and the athletes. Everyone here is so passionate about what we do, and we have to be because you

know you'll see some of the conditions that we're in, and we're not like, we're not paid, and just, you know, like a lot of us are working at jobs or going to school, so that's just pure passion to be able to give up, you know, sacrifice so much, and give up so many other opportunities in life to be here for eight plus hours every single day. It's hard to believe that she's an Olympian. I mean, the odds of becoming an Olympian are pretty, pretty small. This is our Olympic wall over here, real stop. This is Rio, named after Rio de Janeiro, the olymp. Yep, got him in 2017. Anita started dreaming about the Olympic team probably when she was about 12. We always watch the Olympics as a family, and we were watching, and she's like, Well, how old do you have to be? And I said, I think you have to be 16. And Anita started processing that. She's like, Well, wait, so technically I can be in the next Olympics? Yeah, technically you can.

then that's when she really started, you know, thinking about the Olympic dream. All right, so this is Anita's room. We have all her medals over here. That was her first summer. That picture up there was her first summer on the national team. This is cool. This is something they give the Olympians. It's like a big yearbook. One of my favorite pictures from the Olympics. Now they made the Olympics, and now it's like, M, they could really possibly get a medal. So it's super exciting. Would it be nice for them to get a gold? Yeah, it would be nice for them to get any kind of medal. Yeah, but it would be really nice to get a gold. We were always a sports family. It doesn't matter what we did. We had to deal with some kind of a sport. Have you spoken to Danny recently? I have. Yesterday they had a Team USA for water polo was doing an exhibition yesterday, and they got to do the halftime show. [Music] [Applause]

she texted me she was Dad. It was a bomb, and inside of me, I was like, bombing is like bad, but I guess it's good, so nowadays it's good. Daniela, as an athlete, as she is right now today, it's like she has these blinders on right now, and she's laser-focused on the task ahead, which is the Olympics. Really proud that she's Latina, she's from Venezuela, but more than anything, I think that she represents our way of life, thank you to a country that gave us so much. And I get emotional because I've had the greatest opportunity basically 'cause I came here when I was young in such an amazing country. Having a kid represent the United States, it's such... This is it, the last stop for the US artistic swimming team to show they have what it takes to bring home an Olympic medal. Most... And look at this first acrobatic move, and now a 10.85 hybrid with six pattern changes. My goal in Budapest is to keep

the difficulty like we're practicing the hard one, but we were going to show just the last minute an easier one, so they get to work on the Olympic um routine. But one day before, I'm going to take some things away to make it easier, so they feel stronger and more confident. Try to beat our rival with less difficulty but better execution and the height that she got there. They took gold in the technical team. They took gold in the acrobatic team. Have they done it again? Wow, 34661 Z United States of America done it again. It's the gold. They've won goals in all of the team events. This gold medal sweep has proven Andrea's strategy is working, but they haven't reached their goal just yet, with the biggest challenge still to come. Team USA will need to stay laser-focused on training if they hope to win gold at the Olympics. There's more than glory riding on this. An Olympic medal victory could signal a change in tide for Team USA's future in the sport. When you get back in the medal

game a lot changes with your funding. You know, there's a lot of these things that people don't think about that go into the success of a sport and a team and are results of winning medals. If we win gold, I not only celebrate the... I jump from the T fell with a parachute. If we don't make the podium, we already made history, but I don't want to feel that we failed because we already did something unbelievable. No. [Music]

How The US Artistic Swimming Team Trains For The Olympics | Second To None | Business Insider

What you want to know about business. 

Visit our homepage for the top stories of the day: https://www.businessinsider.com 
Business Insider on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/businessinsider
Business Insider on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insiderbusiness
Business Insider on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/businessinsider
Business Insider on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/Business_Insider/5319643143
Business Insider on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessinsider

If you have a permissions or licensing request, please connect with our partners at PARS International who will be able to provide you with an accurate quote for the overall usage rights that you’re interested in. A representative from PARS will contact you shortly after filling out this request form: https://www.parsintl.com/publications/insider/
