Perth Voice Interactive

ARTISTIC swimming is back in Melville as the SupaNova club returns to its home at Booragoon LeisureFit. 

Founded in 2015, SupaNova had called Booragoon home until the centre’s year-long renovations, having to relocate to the Perth High Performance Centre in Mount Claremont. 

SupaNova vice president Lesley Enzor says the “combination of athleticism and endurance” of artistic swimming makes the sport “incredibly unique” in WA. 

“The athletes have to have the endurance of a marathon swimmer, and combine that with the grace of a ballet dancer and the flexibility of a gymnast, whilst being upside down,” Ms Enzor said. 

“It requires an awful lot of skill… it’s probably one of the only sports where you have to work exactly in unison with the person right next to you.”

The completed renovations also signalled a name change for the sport once known as synchronised swimming, to “better reflect the difficulty”. 

WA, and SupaNova itself, have their fair share of representation even at Olympic level, including Amie Thompson, Alessandra Ho, and Hannah Burkhill, who all represented Australia at the Tokyo Olympics. 

The national team also trains at the Perth High Performance Centre. 

It’s a growing sport in WA, according to Ms Enzor, and despite the high skill level required, it’s not as inaccessible as it may seem. 

“It’s a much smaller sport than say football and cricket, but nevertheless, WA has a large representation [of athletes] at a national level,” Ms Enzor said.

“We’ve got everything from complete beginners to Olympians, including over 60s classes too.

“We go from all ages and all levels, right up to our junior squad, five athletes of which are on national teams.”  

SupaNova head coach Ana Mendigutxia Balil says it is “everything” to be back at the pool in Booragoon because the renovations, although necessary, had an impact on the number of people at the club. 

“We lost a lot of athletes when the pool shut down, because families need to work around their schedules to get their children to training,” Ms Mendigutxia Balil said. 

“The places that we moved to ended up being up to an hour for the families to get to, and because artistic swimming is a very competitive sport that you need to train a lot for, it was very challenging. 

“It’s pretty important for us to be back at Booragoon, because it’s a very good location, it’s easy for all of the families to get to, and this is where we started.” 

One of the key aims in relaunching the club is to get more men and boys into the sport, according to Ms Enzor, so they will be running male-only come-and-try sessions. 

Last year’s Paris Olympics were the first in which men were allowed to compete in the artistic swimming events. 

“The gender barrier has just been there for so long,” Ms Enzor said.

“We’re trying to raise awareness of the fact that it’s a combination of swimming, gym work, and strength, it’s not all makeup and jewels on your swimming costume.” 

SupaNova will be relaunching on Saturday, February 9, which will include free classes and demonstrations. 

Paris Olympic team members Margo Joseph-Kuo, Zoe Poulis, and Georgia Courage-Gardiner, alongside coach and two-time Olympian Amie Thompson, will be in attendance. 

More information is available on the SupaNova Artistic Swimming Club website.

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER