"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 revelatory history, Vicki Valosik traces a century of aquatic performance, from vaudeville to the Olympic arena, and brings to life the colorful cast of characters whose "pretty swimming" not only laid the groundwork for an altogether new sport but forever changed women's relationships with water. Williams, who became a Hollywood sensation for her splashy "aquamusicals," 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.
Early starlets like Lurline the Water Queen performed "scientific" swimming, a set of moves previously only practiced by men--including Benjamin Franklin--that focused on form and exhibited mastery in the water. Demonstrating their fancy feats in aquariums and water tanks rolled onto music hall stages, these women stunned Victorian audiences with their physical dexterity and defied society's rigid expectations of what was proper and possible for their sex.
Far more than bathing beauties, they ushered in sensible swimwear and influenced lifesaving and physical education programs, helping to drop national drowning rates and paving the way for new generations of female athletes. When a Chicago physical educator matched their aquatic movements to music in the 1920s, young girls flocked to take part in "synchronized swimming." But despite overwhelming love from audiences and the Olympic ambitions of its practitioners, "synchro" was long perceived as little more than entertaining pageantry, and its athletes would face a battle against the current to earn a spot at the highest echelons of sport.
Now, on the fortieth anniversary of synchronized swimming's elevation to Olympic status, Swimming Pretty honors its incredible history of grit, glamor, and sheer athleticism.
Industry Reviews
"[An] enlightening, well-researched history . . . As [Valosik's] book reveals in fascinating detail, although women's access to the water has been mired for centuries in gender politics . . . women have transformed swimming for everyone in fundamental ways." -- Sarah L. Kaufman - Wall Street Journal
"Journalist Vicki Valosik, herself a master synchronized swimmer, knows that the sport involves more than waterproof makeup and spangled costumes. Her new book, "Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water," traces the history of the sport with the precision and grace of an Esther Williams tableau . . . As the 2024 Games begin next month in Paris, "Swimming Pretty" can be a great primer on a spectacular, strenuous sport." -- The Los Angeles Times
"[A] fascinating book... [Valosik] compellingly conveys how difficult it is to stay underwa-ter for minutes at a time, to kick in concert with seven other potent pairs of legs, to propel one's body high out of the water-in full makeup and with a dazzling smile." -- Lucy Moore - Literary Review
"[Valosik] give[s] an exhaustive history of swimming pretty without exhausting you. Her writing is lively and takes you right into each moment, then sends you off to tell everyone else about how tough this beautiful sport is - even if trying it sounds like a very tall order." -- Isabel Hardman - The Spectator
