By Michelle Woo Photo by Kenny Krug, Start to Finish Photography.
Beneath the surface glitz and glitter, it’s been a rough tread for synchronized swimmer Becky Kim. Knee problems, back pain, concussions — she’s high-kicked hurdle after hurdle. Now more determined than ever, the 23-year-old athlete is ready to make the biggest splash of her career come August.
She’s going for Olympic gold.
“Sometimes I can’t fall asleep at night,” Kim giddily admits in a phone interview from her training grounds in Walnut Creek, Calif. “I dream about being on the podium and I get shivers in my body. I’ve been waiting so long for this moment. I’ve come over mountains.”
Synchronized swimming still may not get the fanfare of its aquatic big brothers diving and speed swimming, but make no mistake, this sport is no dip in the pool.
A typical three-minute routine — performed in a deep swimming pool — can contain more than 30 formations, dozens of throws and lifts and choreography so demanding it would leave dancers on land out of breath.
Kim and her nine teammates practice for eight to 10 hours a day in and out of water, their schedule packed with circuit training, pilates sets, breathing exercises, group visualization sessions and even circus school. (Cool fact: The team members have spent numerous hours dangling from harnesses Cirque du Soleil-style at San Francisco’s Circus Center, where they practice their lifts, flips and twists.)
“When people think of synchronized swimming, they think of Esther Williams,” Kim says, referring to the 1940s-era athlete and movie star. “You know, those fancy shows. It’s understandable. That was the origin of the sport. But people don’t realize how much effort it takes to look effortless. We train our muscles. We train our lungs. We train our facial expressions. If people watched a synchronized swimming competition, they’d be amazed at how difficult it is.”
Training in Walnut Creek has been both convenient and meaningful for Kim, as it’s also the suburban community where she grew up. Kim, the middle child of three, says she was an “all-around athletic girl” who dabbled in all sorts of activities during her childhood, from figure skating to softball to golf. Her parents, now both missionaries, catered to her shifting interests. “If I didn’t like ballet, they’d say, ‘Why don’t you try gymnastics?’” she recalls. “If I didn’t like this, they’d say, ‘Then why don’t you try that?’”
One day, the Walnut Creek Aquanuts, a local synchronized swimming team, was practicing at the same pool facility where Kim was taking a swimming lesson. At the age of 9, she was entranced by the music and “what all those legs were doing out of the water.”
Kim had never heard of synchronized swimming before, but she knew she wanted to try it.
In 1996, when Kim watched the U.S. synchronized swimming team win the gold medal at the Olympics in Atlanta, her motivation soared. “That’s when I started dreaming about the Olympics,” she says. “I got really competitive.”
In 2001, she made the junior national team and in 2003, she entered the top-ranked Ohio State on a full scholarship. Two years later, she made the first national team. From then on, her eyes were set on one thing: making it to the Beijing Olympics.
In April 2007, the big announcement was made on the final day of the Synchronized Swimming U.S. National Championships at the Indiana University Natatorium. Kim’s dream became a reality when saw her name painted on the facility’s famous “wall of champions,” alongside rows of past Olympians, including her idol, diver Laura Wilkinson.
“I really thanked God,” she says. “He has blessed my life.”
The team — all Olympic rookies — is working nonstop in hope of grasping the gold, as the U.S. took home the bronze four years ago in Athens. Russia has been the dominant force in synchronized swimming, winning two Olympic golds and four World Championship titles in the last decade. In April, Kim and her teammates traveled to Beijing to get a feel for the air and the pool they’ll soon be competing in.
Kim says the team has good chemistry. Before competitions, they’ll all sit around and listen to a recording of Al Pacino’s dramatic pep talk “Peace With Inches” from the film “Any Given Sunday.” It gives them that go-get-‘em feeling, she says. After events, they’ll often go out and “celebrate the good moments.”
“I’m team photographer and videographer,” says Kim, who’s also known as “BK” to her teammates. “I love making memories of our experiences together. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
To focus on the sport, Kim has taken time off from school, where she’s majoring in Korean and nutrition. After the Olympics, she will return to complete her senior year.
No matter what happens next month, she always remembers this quote: “If you put God first, you’ll never be in second.”
“Without my faith,” she says, “I know I wouldn’t have come this far.”
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Featured Event
One of the the biggest Asian cinema events to hit Southern California opens on May 10. The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications, features the latest works by established and emerging filmmakers, along with seminars, panel discussions and symposiums on topics relevant to Asian Pacific cinema.
Opening Night features “Shanghai Calling,” directed by Daniel Hsia and starring Korean American Daniel Henney, who plays a Chinese American expat lawyer navigating his way through the mean streets of Shanghai (the picture above also indicates he is a raisin smuggler). But does he take off his shirt? Go watch the movie to find out! read more
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