My Synchro journey

I have been a synchronised swimmer for the City of Birmingham Synchronised Swimming Club for 14 years. I started synchro at the age of 8 after being bored in my normal swimming and dance lessons.

I competed in my first national age group competition at 10; by the time I was 13 I was selected through national age group figures to attend trials for the England Talent Squad. I successfully made the team and through this I was able to compete in my first international competition, the Comen Cup which was held in Italy. I was re-selected to compete in the England Talent Squad every year from 2010-2013 where I was able to compete all over the world. In 2013, I went to Team GB trials where I was successful. I trained 26 hours a week in Birmingham, Surrey and Aldershot, including 2 week long training camps over half terms, I did all of this while still in full time education. I competed in Turkey, Italy, Croatia and France whilst sitting my GCSE’s, managing homework, still having a social life and competing for Birmingham in our regional and national competitions.

The highlight of my synchro career was in 2015 where I was able to compete in the Baku first European Games, the competition was held in Azerbaijan and was the first competition of its kind, a mini Olympic games for Europe, all Olympic sports competed with countries from all over Europe. At the same time as this, I was sitting my A-levels in Azerbaijan at one of their local schools straight after coming from competing. I was so proud to have the privilege to represent GB in such prestige and inspiring competitions. The following year I swam in my final international competition at the Queen Elizabeth London 2012 pool at the senior European Games, to swim against synchro legends such as Natalia Ischenko, Svetlana Romashina ans Ona Carbonell was like a dream come true. I has been following their synchro careers from a young age and I felt incredibly starstruck and privileged to be able to see them train and swim, it was at that point I knew I had reached the peak of my career and thought it would be a beautiful place to end it, in the 2012 Olympic pool.

I am forever grateful for the opportunities synchro has given me and the confidence I have gained as an individual. I am still competing for City of Birmingham Synchro and now I also have the opportunity to coach synchro at the club where I can pass my knowledge and experiences to the younger generation. I am most thankful to Ali Pratt; she has given me so much confidence and so many life skills you can only learn through a team sport.  One day I hope to aspire girls like myself to persevere in synchro because the experiences you gain from it are life changing.