Every Saturday morning at 8 am, a cluster of laughing, splashing women take over the Aqua Centre pool.
They are the swimmers of the Aqua Doves Women’s Synchro Team, northern Manitoba’s first and only women’s synchronized swimming team.
“Synchro is a sport for life,” says coach and team member Amanda Link-Labarre.
This fall, Link-Labarre started the program with the intent to promote fitness and fun, and also to explore another option for aquatic programming in the local area.
Twelve women signed up to learn propulsions, practice synchro figures and experiment with routines set to music.
“It’s a social atmosphere, and a half-season in, the ladies are all comfortable with each other,” Link-Labarre says. “There’s lots of laughter on the pool deck.”
With swimmers of all levels and abilities working together on the team, Link-Labarre takes a supportive, growth-oriented approach, encouraging each member to advance at her own pace. “There’s peer encouragement throughout practices, as we begin to notice our improvements and as we learn the sport,” she says.
There are currently three other women’s synchro teams in Manitoba, located in Steinbach and Winnipeg.
In early 2016, the Aqua Doves Women’s Synchro Team will begin preparing routines to be showcased provincially and locally.
Link-Labarre brings much experience to her role, as she is the former head coach of the Aqua Doves synchro program for girls and a long-time synchronized swimmer herself.
