For Katie Gu (12), a typical Saturday does not include catching up on the week’s TV shows or shopping with some friends. Instead, her competitive synchronized swimming schedule fills her Saturdays, spending nine hours training in the water and on land. Harker Aquila sat down with Katie to discuss her passion for synchronized swimming and her future plans, including attending the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Harker Aquila: How does synchronized swimming work?
Katie Gu: The way synchro works is usually there are different events. There’s teams, solos, duets and combos. The most popular event is the team event and that is of eight members of the team. There aren’t really any positions. It’s kind of just members and I’m usually the flyer though so as you can see in the pictures, I usually go off the lifts.

HA: When did you start swimming and what made you start?
KG: When I was younger I did both ballet and speed swimming. I wasn’t particularly interested in either and my mom noticed that at swim practice, I just kind of goofed off and would do flips underwater. I think when I was about seven or eight, my speed swimming coach told me about the Aquamaids. Synchro just sounded like the perfect sport for me, so I joined the next year.

HA: What part of swimming makes you want to practice everyday? Why do you keep doing it? What’s your favorite part?
KG: One thing that’s really nice is that you can actually see your hard work pay off. Usually when you’re at school and you study really hard and you don’t do well on a test, you don’t see any of your effort . I feel like when I swim, everything that I put in I see it reflected and I like that a lot. Also, my teammates are obviously really supportive. It’s nice to be working with people that have similar goals as you and who are working as hard as you.

HA: How does synchronized swimming fit into your schedule?
KG: Usually on weekdays we practice from anywhere between three to eight and the way it works is that usually we have land training in the beginning so sometimes we do yoga, sometimes we do stretching, sometimes we’ll do acro. Then, we swim and work on our routines or choreograph for the rest of practice. Our longest training days are usually the weekends, so Saturdays. This Saturday, I have from seven to three, and Sunday I have seven to four.

HA: How do you manage to combine swimming with the workload here?
KG: That’s always been challenging. Junior year was definitely pretty tough. The demands from both my teachers and my coaches are really conflicting in that I need to be able to simultaneously juggle the high academic standards here at Harker and the training expectations at the pool. But I think building strong relationships with my teachers, who have all been  incredibly understanding and supportive, has helped me enormously through the years. Also, I’ve found that the most valuable part  of being introduced to sports early is that I’ve been able to develop a pretty good sense of time management . Learning to keep myself consistently on task and maintain my priorities has definitely  helped me balance both school and synchro. That said, it does get tough when I’m sick or have a ton of schoolwork, because there just aren’t a lot of practices I can afford to miss.

HA: Is there a specific reason why you chose Stanford?
KG: There are three of four universities with the biggest synchro teams in the country. The top three are Ohio State, Stanford, and Incarnate [University of Incarnate Word]. Stanford’s been my goal for as long as I can remember; it’s really got the whole package: the stellar academics and the elite synchro team. Choosing Stanford was really a no-brainer for me.

HA: What are you most excited about swimming at Stanford?
KG: The team and the coaches at Stanford are all crazy talented. Stanford’s athletic facilities are incredible, and the resources the university has for student-athletes are fantastic. Because Stanford’s very attentive to what you need for your studies, it’s easy to communicate back and forth between professors and coaches. I’m looking forward to training towards my goals in synchro all while receiving an unparalleled education. I’m also currently part of the USA senior national team. If I am selected again next year, I’ll be able to train both with the national team and Stanford, which would be an amazing experience.

HA: Do you see swimming as a big part of your life in the next 4 years? Do you see yourself going to 2016?
KG: That’s a major goal of mine. Unfortunately, the USOC changed their qualification guidelines for synchro recently so that only one country from each continent can attend the Games. Last year, the US team didn’t qualify for the Olympics. The current national team is training very intensely to bring the US back to the top. Although academics are very important to me, I aim and plan to work towards Rio.

HA: What advice do you have for aspiring athletes who want to play at the collegiate level?
KG: It’s really important to know what you want. You have to make sure it’s something that you want to do because once you commit yourself to it it’s a hard path to stray from. Just to get to know the coach. I contacted my coach pretty early on in the season. Let the coaches know your strengths and what you can contribute to the team.