The 1998 Goodwill Games, held in Seattle, USA, were especially remembered by those who attended synchronized swimming and witnessed a real "revolution" in the pool. After all, one of the participants in a species considered 100% female was the man Bill May, who performed in a duet with Christina Lam. Even if this heroic synchronized mixed did not win a gold medal, it undoubtedly made it into the history of big-time sports.
Swimming from across the ocean
Synchronized swimming recently celebrated the 70th anniversary of its modern name. It arose at the start of the 20th century somewhere in Australia. Or in Canada. And largely thanks to the desire of some local swimmers to express themselves and their beauty in a special way. In addition to water, overseas girls, apparently, adored dancing and rhythmic gymnastics, which was not so popular in those years. In one pool. Like gymnasts, they reacted negatively to the presence of men nearby, preferring to call their type of swimming exclusively female.
The Olympic debut of synchronized swimming took place in 1984 in Los Angeles, where the USSR national team did not come. Therefore, it is unnecessary to be surprised that it was the North American swimmer who became the pioneer. By the way, May could not achieve more than winning silver in unofficial competitions. How he failed to get to the Olympics. More precisely, Bill was not allowed there, and now he successfully performs in various water shows. May's example, by the way, turned out to be "contagious": men's synchronized teams were also formed in Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Japan.
The best synchronized athlete in the USA-1998 and 1999 Bill May became the winner of the open championships in France and Switzerland. And in 2009 he took part in the water show of Olympic champions Maria Kiseleva and Olga Brusnikina “The Lost World”.
Wait, who floats, show a man's passport
But why are male athletes not allowed into the competition pool? After all, for example, in figure skating and sports dancing, their partners are quite comfortable. There is no answer to this long-standing question. But many agree that there is no place for men in the most beautiful of water sports. The audience does not need either solo performances of young people or synchronous ones.
Male fans are especially tough on a possible innovation. The homophobic stereotypes of modern society, unfortunately, are so strong that men who seek to compete with young ladies in the beauty of the performance of essentially dancing figures, it, not particularly striving for evidence, prefers to accuse men of non-traditional sexual orientation. Like, these guys are not behaving like men. Maybe they just envy? Skeptics are not even confused by the obvious fact that homosexuals usually prefer representatives of a much more brutal species. From a popular point of view. And they certainly do not dream of young girls as sports partners.
Trapped in stereotypes
This opinion is based on the categorical assertion that synchronized swimming is not just a very elegant, but also a feminine sport. The main role in it is assigned not to muscles, especially male ones, but to technique. And the price here is not brute physical strength, but a combination of flexibility, coordination, a sense of rhythm, sophistication, grace, plasticity, artistry. Something that can only beautify a real girl. And what natural men, even after many years of training, will never achieve. Stereotypes and patterns …
However, the girls themselves are far from enthusiastic about the idea of competing with young people. They allow only one, and even more, theoretical version, when a mixed duo competes with the same. And not like it happened in Seattle-98, where a pair of Lam-May were arguing for gold with two girls. They will have too unequal chances, and in both directions. After all, a man is obviously stronger, but a woman is much more flexible.
The first Russian to seriously take up synchronized swimming was 15-year-old Petersburger Alexander Maltsev. But all that he managed to achieve, being engaged in the pool from the age of six, was to perform in the solo program of the national championship.
In FINA veritas
Officials from the International Federation (FINA) are clearly not striving for innovations. Perhaps because the appearance of male athletes is fraught with additional problems for them. For example, a complete change in the rules and principles of refereeing. And it will probably take away some "zest". It is not a big secret that the stands of the swimming pools, where the synchronized swimmers' competitions are held, are often filled with amateurs who have bought tickets, looking out from under the water of beautiful female legs and arms.
