BBC Young Reporter: Andrea is the youngest member of Team GB's artistic swimming squad
- Published
- comments
At 13 years old, Andrea is the youngest member of Team GB's artistic swimming squad.
Up until a few years ago, the sport used to be called synchronised swimming and it involves ballet and gymnastic movement, all while holding your breath under the water.
She says one day she'd like to go to the Olympics and win a gold medal.
She also wants to inspire more children to take up the sport because she says it is really fun!
What is artistic swimming?
Artistic swimmers perform athletic movements, choreographed to music, in order to score points.
Then 15 judges score your performance out of 10, and those points are combined to give your total and place you on a leader board.
You're scored on a variety of elements including your presentation, the choreography and the difficulty of your underwater performance.
If you're performing in a duet or a group, your synchronisation with your team is also scored out of 10 - which is where the previous name of the sport 'synchronised swimming' came from.
You can get points taken off your total if you touch the bottom of the pool or if your performance goes over the time you're given.
It's an incredibly difficult sport which requires lots of skill.
According to Swim England, artistic swimmers have an aerobic capacity - a measurement of how much oxygen your lungs can breath in and use - similar to that of a long distance runner.
Balancing training, school and fun time
Andrea's story
Andrea told us being part of the GB Team is a fantastic feeling, but balancing training, school, playing and spending time with her family can be tricky.
She was chosen for Team GB after winning two golds for solo and duet in the Swim England Artistic Swimming National Championship in 2021.
But because she's still only 13, there are some skills she's not allowed to learn until she's a bit older and her body develops.
In term-time, Andrea trains for up to three hours after her school day.
Her training consists of things like speed swimming, swimming routine exercises and training on land too.
She said she doesn't let the training get in the way of her school work though - she said it's because training has taught her "that working hard creates success in life".
In the school break, training gets more intense.
Although she lives in London, she has to travel to Bristol to train with the team.
The 12-hour training day starts at 5am where she'll take part in physical exercises on dry land until she gets a break at around 9am.
There's more team training after a break until lunchtime when the team fill up on protein and salads.
Then, guess what, even more training!
Andrea said: "Usually I'm so exhausted during these days that I can't think of anything else, so usually I try to complete my school holiday homework before I go for these camps."
Reckon you have what it takes to be an artistic swimmer? Let us know in the comments below...
- Published15 November 2022
- Published29 January
- Published6 December 2022