Swimming Pretty

From vaudeville tank shows to the Olympic arena, a groundbreaking history of how women found synchronicity—and power—in water.

“If you’re not strong enough to swim fast, you’re probably not strong enough to swim ‘pretty,’” said a young Esther Williams to theater impresario Billy Rose. Since the nineteenth century, tensions between beauty and strength, aesthetics and athleticism have both impeded and propelled the careers of female swimmers—none more so than synchronized swimmers, for whom Williams is often considered godmother.

In this riveting history—the first of its kind—Vicki Valosik traces a century of aquatic performance, from vaudeville and dime museums to the Olympic arena. Williams, who became a Hollywood sensation for her splashy “aqua-musicals,” was just one in a long, bedazzled line of swimmers who began their careers as athletes but found greater opportunity, and often social acceptance, in the world of show business. Together, they not only laid the groundwork for synchronized swimming, but forever changed women’s relationships with water.

Early starlets like Agnes Beckwith, Lurline the Water Queen, and Annette Kellerman performed “scientific” or “ornamental” swimming, a set of moves previously only practiced by men—including Benjamin Franklin—that focused on form over speed and demonstrated physical mastery in the water. Performing in aquariums and water tanks rolled onto music hall stages, they stunned Victorian audiences with their grace and dexterity. In the process, they defied society’s rigid expectations of what was proper and possible for women—and even ushered in new, sensible swimwear.

Far more than just bathing beauties, these women and others who followed influenced lifesaving and physical education programs, helping to drop national drowning rates and paving the way for new generations of female athletes. When Katherine Curtis, a University of Chicago physical educator, decided to match their aquatic movements to music in the 1920s, young girls flocked to pools to take part in “synchronized swimming.” But despite overwhelming love from audiences, the sport was for decades perceived as little more than entertaining pageantry. Practitioners soon fostered Olympic ambitions, but it would prove to be a battle against the current as these athletes fought for a spot at the highest echelons of sport.

Now, on the fortieth anniversary of synchronized swimming’s elevation to Olympic status, Swimming Pretty finally honors the history of grit, glamor, and sheer athleticism of an utterly unique sport.

About the Author: Vicki Valosik is a master synchronized swimmer whose writing has appeared in publications such as the Atlantic, Smithsonian magazine, and Slate. She is an editorial director and teaches writing at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.