November 20, 2009

SWIMMERS GETTING BACK IN SYNC

by John Deem/Lake Norman Citizen

   For elite athletes, the calendar often isn’t made up of days, weeks and months. Instead, time is measured in benchmarks, event to event, training cycle to training cycle, championship to championship. Along the way, a few of those markers become milestones, the end of one stage — win or lose — and sometimes, the start of another.
   When Javeneh Nikbakht joined her teammates this summer at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., she knew one of those moments was coming. The 18-year-old native of San Jose, Calif., soon would be competing in her final meet with the U.S. Junior National Synchronized Swimming Team. Only this week’s UANA Pan American Junior Championships at Huntersville Family Fitness and Aquatics remained before the team co-captain (“Java” to her teammates and coaches) aged out of junior competition and tried to make the top-level U.S. team.
   After a month of training at the University of the Incarnate Word in Texas, Java and her teammates had moved on to Colorado Springs for the eight-hours-a-day training that would condition and sharpen them for the Pan Am Championships. In a segment of their group routine, team members were to hold the feet of one of their teammates and propel her out of the water, where she would cartwheel over two swimmers supported by teammates.
   Java held the second girl afloat as the airborne swimmer arced high over her teammates and plummeted for a feet-first re-entry. Instead, her feet slammed into the left side of Java’s head. Teammates helped the dazed Java to the pool deck.
   “I couldn’t even remember my address,” she recalls this week.

   The collision left Java with a severe concussion — a serious concern in any sport, but especially so in an event that includes so much time under water, where pressure builds as a swimmer goes deeper. Java missed a couple of weeks of crucial conditioning, and worried that she would fall too far behind her teammates to catch up, but she also felt fear.
   “It was scary,” she says. “I didn’t know if I could get back in” the pool to compete.
   When Java was cleared to return to training, she did get back in. Then got right back out. She began suffering severe headaches and other symptoms that hinted that she wasn’t fully recovered.
   Java returned to the pool about two weeks ago, and feels she’s caught up enough with her teammates.
   “The headaches are mild now,” she says. “I’m still a little scared of doing lifts, though.”
   The good news about those lifts, Java adds, is that she’s the one doing the lifting.

‘Ultimate team sport’
   Java and her teammates are quite aware of the wisecracks from sports fans who insist synchronized swimmers are not athletes. Ask those folks to swim, perform or tread water for four hours at a time, twice a day.
   Synchronized swimming is a little like figure skating, only under water. Single performers, pairs and teams perform choreographed routines to music, and are judged both on technical merit and artistic interpretation.
   “Actually, it’s the ultimate team sport,” Java says. “It’s also a really tedious sport.”
   Team members spend hour after hour perfecting the smallest details while practicing their routines and  individual drills under the critical eyes of coaches. One small mistake by one team member in a routine can turn synchronicity into chaos.
   Or send a cartwheeling swimmer into a teammate.

Local divers thrive at nationals
 The Carolina Diving Academy, based at Huntersville Family Fitness and Aquatics Center, took sixth place at the 2009 USA Diving Age Group Championships Aug. 1-4. The team followed that performance up with a 13th-place finish at the 2009 Speedo Junior National Diving Championships Aug. 5-8. Both events were in Moultrie, Ga.
Sixty-three teams competed in the Age Group Championships, and 52 teams took part in the Speedo Junior Nationals. Competitors earned spots in both championships through qualifying meets.
• USA Diving Age Group Championships: Charles Mitchell led Carolina Diving, placing second on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards in the 12-13 age group. Also in the 12-13 category, Carolina Diving’s Cole Petty took fifth on the platform, sixth on the 1-meter board and 11th on the 3-meter.
In the girls 12-13 division, Carolina Diving’s Ali Tuel finished seventh on the 3-meter, while Sara Maleski captured eighth on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. Ryan Walsh was fifth in the 16-18 age group, and Sara Maalizadeh finished 12th on the platform in the 14-15 division.
• Speedo Junior National Diving Championships: Ryan Hawkins took fourth on the platform, and fifth on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards in the 16-18 age group. Jocelyn Porter took fourth on the 3-meter and seventh on the platform in the 11-and-under classification.
 

About Huntersville Family Fitness & Aquatics (HFFA):
Huntersville Family Fitness & Aquatics is about family, fitness and fun. Dedicated HFFA staffers produce an exciting variety of programs and partnerships that connect the community and enable members to experience and achieve the most in health, wellness, and total fitness. Built in 2001, the 88,000-square-foot HFFA facility features state-of-the-art aquatic and fitness components, including a 50-meter pool, a 25-yard warm water pool, an outdoor family fun pool, full-court gymnasium, complete fitness center, and group exercise studio.  As the only public facility in the Southeast with an Olympic-sized, 50-meter competition pool and 10-meter dive tower, HFFA regularly hosts aquatics events with up to 2,000 spectators for regional, national, and international swim and dive competitions. For more information, please call (704) 766-2222 or visit www.hffa.com.

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