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How Did Synchronized Swimming Become an Olympic Sport?

Emily Yoffe
Posted Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2000, at 6:25 PM ET

Or for that matter this year's addition to the Olympic canon, its cousin, synchronized diving?

There are three ways an activity can come into the Olympics: as a completely new sport; as a discipline, a branch of an existing sport; or as an event, a competition within a discipline. Triathlon is making its Olympic debut as a sport in Sydney; trampoline, which is part of gymnastics, is a new discipline; and women's pole vaulting the latest track and field event.

The first step to becoming a recognized sport of the Summer Games requires being organized into an international federation and having male participants in at least 75 countries on four continents and female participants in at least 40 countries on three continents. Once the International Olympic Committee votes to recognize a federation, the next step becomes a matter of lobbying. This is supposed to be done without the help of that now-banned Olympic activity, bribery. The IOC now recognizes 31 federations in everything from bridge to korfball (it is beyond Explainer's capacity to explain korfball).

Since the IOC wants to keep the number of athletes to the current 10,000 (!), it also helps if a sport has telegenic participants, which may be why triathlon made it from recognized international federation to medal sport in a swift 11 years, and bowling, recognized since 1979, languishes. (Their new Olympic marketing campaign slogan: "Strike Gold.")

Since it is easier to make it into the Olympics under the umbrella of an existing sport, some federations allow themselves to become a discipline. Snowboarding gave up its quest for solo recognition and is now part of the International Ski Federation. It lost some independence but gained the economic reward of Olympic status. It is a reward no one wants to lose. There are reports that among the sports the IOC has recently considered for elimination are baseball, modern penthatlon, and synchronized swimming. Yet the Sydney Games show they have a Rasputin-like capacity to rise from the dead.

Synchronized korfball, anyone?

Explainer wishes to thank Michael Salmon of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles.

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Emily Yoffe is the author of What the Dog Did: Tales From a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner. You can send your Human Guinea Pig suggestions or comments to .
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Reader Comments from The Fray:


Although I am not in anyway involved in synchronized swimming, I had the opportunity to participate in a practice once. I couldn't keep up, and I swim four times a week for at least an hour. And then there is the added hardship of smiling convincingly while you're enduring the painful workout. All competitive synchronized swimmers have my respect, and I would never question their right as athletes to be at the Olympics.

--Collete Murphy

(To reply, click here.)
[Many readers made similar points.]


I think the IOC should eliminate all team sports, all sports requiring judges, and all sports requiring tracks or other conditions that can't be duplicated from one venue to the next. This would, of course, completely eliminate the Winter Games, but so be it. Also eliminated would be baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, soccer, field hockey, and water polo.

--Dale Greer

(To reply, click here.)


The change in rules that allowed Professional Athletes to compete in the Olympics should have come with the condition that many of the sports should be eliminated. Any sport that has a championship considered more important to that sport than the Olympics (such as Wimbledon, The World Cup, the NBA NFL and MLB finals) should be eliminated. The best athletes do not want to show up, as they risk injury and multi-million dollars losses. If they do show up, they take it easy--not the Olympic ideal spirit. The problem is that these sports are actually money-makers for the Olympic sponsor cities.

--Jason

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Note from the Fray Editor: There were many other suggestions for rules that would eliminate some events, and Rob had a whole manifesto: "...no sport requiring the use by the competitor of any item not identical to that used by all other competitors (there goes NASCAR tennis and sailing)" And HRH is wondering: "Where is the ballroom dancing?"

(9/29)

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