Paris 2024 will go down in artistic swimming history for the United States. For the first time since 2008, Team USA qualified to compete in the Olympic artistic swimming team event. And for the first time since 2004, they landed on the podium, earning silver after three days of competition. Success came with sacrifice, and these women displayed the ultimate teamwork en route to three stellar performances that put the whole world on notice. We spoke with Olympic team member Anita Alvarez to discuss this life-changing accomplishment.
About Team USA
The official roster consisted of Anita Alvarez, Daniella Ramirez, Ruby Remati, Jamie Czarkowski, Jacklyn Luu, Megumi Field, Audrey Kwon, Keana Hunter, and Calista Liu as the alternate. Alvarez, going into her third Olympic games, was the only athlete on the team to have Olympic experience. Ranging from 17- to 27-years-old, Alvarez says that they “used this age gap as a strength.” The team constantly learns from each other no matter the age, capitalizing on each person’s skill set to make the team stronger as a group.
Alvarez’s breathtaking skill in this physically demanding sport has taken her own breath away twice, with a history of losing consciousness in the water during her routines at the FINA Olympic Qualification Tournament in 2021, and in the FINA World Aquatics Championships in 2022. “I still had the passion and did not want to be done,” Alvarez says. After getting cleared to compete again, “it became a trusting game, trusting my body, my mind, and my teammates” for Alvarez to not fear competition. Her mental and physical strength showcases her dedication to artistic swimming, and these attributes define the culture of Team USA as a whole.
“Being the older veteran on the team, I did not want to show weakness,” Alvarez says. But she learned that she can turn to her teammates whenever she needed support. Head Coach Andrea Fuentes told USA Artistic Swimming that “each member of this Olympic Team embodies the highest levels of excellence, resilience, and unity that define us. This team came together to set their country apart and achieve a collective goal in becoming Olympic medalists.”
Resilience and Fight
In November of 2023 at the Pan American Games, Team USA fell short of Olympic qualification by a fraction of a point – 0.6638 points to be exact. “The pain of not qualifying at the PanAm Games was the best thing that could happen to us. We used it as fuel to become stronger,” Coach Fuentes said. So three months later, when the team competed at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, they took full advantage of their fire to lock in their position as the second best team in the world, qualifying for the Olympics. Using rejection as redirection boosted this team to Paris, creating a strong foundation based on resilience.
“We had forward momentum and always had a growth mindset. It was a strong, united swim. We knew we nailed it. It just hit.”
In Paris, the three-day competition consisted of a technical, free, and acrobatic routine each day, with the cumulative score determining the podium. After day one, the U.S. sat in fourth place. Knowing how they fought for Olympic qualification, this narrow margin outside of medal range did not scare them. In fact, they came back on day two, earning full credit on their free routine to put them into second place.
Can they take it up one more notch? Of course. The acrobatic routine is a new addition to Olympic competition, and the U.S. capitalized on this to express their artistic and acrobatic skill. They even increased the difficulty of this routine for the Olympics, making it the first time they were performing this routine in competition. This risk had a major reward, and they became Olympic silver medalists.
Staying Focused Through the Pressure
Climbing throughout the entire process of Olympic qualification and competition, how did they stay mentally disciplined to continue elevating their performance? Finding confidence from training helped the team stay grounded during big competitions. “We had forward momentum and always had a growth mindset,” Alvarez says. They trained with a “1% better mindset” everyday, knowing that they did not have to accomplish perfection in one day. Keeping this consistency helped them grow from each practice.
At the Olympics, when stakes are high and pressure feels heavy, they took confidence from training days to translate into competition. Before performances, the team would say “it is just another day at EXPO,” Alvarez says, which is their home pool in Los Angeles. Holding themselves accountable at each practice to be one one percent better from the day before set this strong foundation, and they went into each performance feeling prepared. We saw this mindset come to fruition as their Olympic experience progressed, finding themselves on the podium. From years of hard work and dedication, the moment after realizing they medaled “was surreal,” Alvarez says. “It was a strong, united swim. We knew we nailed it. It just hit.”
Team USA set a new standard for artistic swimming in America, and even the world. With trending moves, such as the underwater moonwalk performed in their technical routine to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” their success is bringing VISibility to the sport and pushing it into a well-deserved spotlight.
