Peter Kent reports
Last time, I interviewed three girls that had been selected to represent the USA at the 2012 Olympics as part of the badminton team. I was asked to follow it up with a look at two other very talented girls who will also be at the Olympics representing the USA but this time, as part of the synchronised swim team.
The two girls in question are Angel and Aleska.
I joined the girls as they were warming up and rehearsing part of their routine in their dorm room before they headed out to perform it in the college pool.
(By the way, don’t let the attractive backdrop fool you. The two girls are in their dorm room. What is behind them is a large picture, but more on that later.)
You may find it a tad strange that they are topless but Angel explained that they both have always had sensitive skin and found tight swimwear to be very irritating so they only wore it at competitions when they really had to.
Angel and Aleska have been friends since “forever”. In fact, they grew up living next door to each other. As the two girls helped each other stretch, they told me more.
Aleska: “I was always asking my parents to go round to Angel’s to play in her paddling pool whenever I saw her out there.”
Angel: “Yeah, and we both started imitating what we saw the swimmers on TV do and before you knew it, our parents had enrolled us at the local sports centre.”
As they talked, I noticed the great care they had for each other as they stretched. Each was paying close attention to the other to make sure they wouldn’t injure themselves by stretching incorrectly.
The duo moved over to the bed to start prepping there routine. Angel began scratching at the waist band of her briefs.
“You see? These are a bit tight. As a result of the sensitivity, I don’t usually wear anything under my skirts so that was one rule with of the dress code I was right at home with,” Angel told me.
I asked the girls if I was correct in assuming that they usually practice naked.
Aleska: “Yes, we usually do but didn’t want to offend you or your readers so thought it best to wear something.”
I didn’t want to stop them practicing to their full extent and told them that I was sure none of the readers would be offended and that they should not put themselves out just because of me.
They appreciated this greatly and couldn’t wait to get their uncomfortable bottoms off.
Not wanting to appear that I was ogling them while they were removing their briefs, I turned my attention to the very impressive wall hangings which turned out to be state of the art LCD displays with moving pictures of a tropical paradise designed to inspire and relax the pair.
Angel: “We saw these while at a contest in Japan and thought it was just the thing to come back to when we had had a demanding session in the pool.”
Now fully naked and completely comfortable, they continued their stretches and routine prepping.
I asked them if it was difficult coming up with new routines.
Aleska: “It can be sometimes. You can spend hours racking your brain trying to come up with something. Other times, you can be just mucking about and you get a great brain wave!”
Angel: “Yes! Just like this position. We were fooling around and came up with it and decided that since we’ve never seen any other swimmers do it, we’ll incorporate into out routine.”
Impressed as I was, I thought there might be a problem and asked if they would both be able to float like that in the water.
Angel: “Oh, you’ll be amazed at what we can do! We both agreed that this unusual position would be used because Aleska will then rotate 180 degrees so she’s orientated the same way as me like this,”
I couldn’t help but remark on how wonderful they were and asked how they felt with the games coming up.
Angel: “We’ve worked so hard for this and dreamed about it loads over the years and it’s finally going to be a reality! We just hope we do everyone proud.”
Aleska: “Yeah, we’re really focused and dedicated, always perfecting our routines. We don’t want to make any mistakes.”
I watched the girls transfixed, going from one position to another, never being able to second guess them. The look of confusion on my face must have been obvious as they decided to revert back to their previous position and let my deduce what they move to next but I just couldn’t get it.
Angel: “We’ve decided to go from that to this,”
I was really impressed, these girls clearly had talent. With their routine being the topic of the conversation again, they could not contain their excitement and began transitioning again through more positions and ended on this:
The two girls continued to show great care and dedication towards each other, making sure they had both done the position correctly.
With all the careful attention to detail I could clearly see that they would indeed perform very well at the Olympics and told them that as with the badminton girls, they too had the support of the whole college.
Angel: “We’ve both felt the support and love from the other students, many have come up to us wishing us lots of luck.”
Aleska: “Students have even been offering to help us with our routines. We had lots of offers, particularly from boys. I can’t understand why they would want to hang out with two girls doing girly stuff like this. I guess they’re being very nice and really want to encourage us.”
My time with the girls was up but before leaving, they asked me once again to guess their next position. I studied them closely and contemplated hard. Eventually, I thought I had it and told them my answer.
“Correct!” they both yelled and showed me I was right.