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Hello, this is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil.
And I'm Becca.
Have you ever done something
physically challenging, Phil,
like running a marathon maybe,
or climbing a mountain?
I've climbed some mountains,
but only very little ones,
so it wasn't that challenging.
If physical challenges are something
you enjoy,
maybe you should try
artistic swimming,
or synchronised swimming as it used
to be called – a combination of dance
and gymnastics with a difference.
In artistic swimming, athletes dance
underwater while holding their breath!
Did you say... dance underwater?
Yes, swimmers dance upside down
in the water, holding their breath.
As we'll hear,
it's an extremely demanding sport
which requires discipline,
stamina and years of training.
As usual, we'll be learning
some useful new words and phrases,
and you can practise these with the
quiz and worksheet on our website.
That's bbclearningenglish.com.
Great. But first,
Phil, I have a question for you.
Artistic swimming became
an Olympic sport in 1984,
but which country has won
the most gold medals since then?
Is it: a) Russia, b) China,
or c) the USA?
Ooh, I think it's b) China.
Well, we'll reveal the correct answer
later in this episode.
Silvia Solymosyová from Slovakia is
a European Championship medallist.
She's also the first artistic swimmer
with over a million
social media followers,
after videos of her walking
upside down underwater went viral.
Here, she explains the different types
of swimming dances, called routines,
to Datshiane Navanayagam, presenter
of BBC World Service programme
The Conversation.
If you had to explain artistic swimming
to someone who has never seen it,
how would you describe it?
So, I would say it depends
if you're watching,
like, a solo or duet or team routine,
because in solo there's one person,
in duet there's two people,
and in team routines there can be
eight people or ten people.
And in the team routines,
there's a lot of lifts.
And actually
in the routines we are smiling, but
we are hiding behind the smile because
we are actually, maybe, dying...!
We don't have oxygen, so...
but we are smiling and people think
that it's easy when it's actually not.
Artistic swimming routines are performed
solo, meaning by just one person,
or as a duet,
which means by two people.
There are also team routines where one
swimmer is lifted up out of the water.
What all these routines have
in common is that,
physically, they are incredibly hard.
Yes, artistic routines are done
upside down, underwater, without oxygen.
The swimmer's movements need
to be as graceful as a ballet dancer,
and above all,
it has to look effortless
because judges award points
for artistic expression.
Silvia says she hides behind a smile –
an idiom meaning to hide pain
by presenting
a happy outward appearance.
To succeed at the top level of any sport
requires a huge amount of dedication.
Silvia trains eight hours a day,
six days a week,
under the guidance of her coach,
who's also her mum and a former
artistic swimming champion herself.
Here, Silvia discusses the sacrifices
she's made to succeed,
with Datshiane Navanayagam for
BBC World Service's The Conversation:
How easy was it being trained
and coached by your mum?
I think it's good on one side because
you can practise more at home,
but on the other hand,
it's not sometimes good because
you're training when you're at home,
when you're supposed to be,
like, chillin'.
There's no respite from it,
in a way, I guess.
Yeah, I didn't have time
for anything else.
Silvia thinks there are good and bad
things about being coached by her mum.
It's good because
she can practise at home,
but on the other hand, it feels
like she's training all the time.
She uses the phrase, on the other hand,
to show this contrasting opinion.
What Silvia really looks forward
to is chillin' –
a slang word meaning relaxing
or hanging out.
For young athletes, balancing sport
with school and friends is difficult,
and it's hard to get a respite
from training.
A respite is a temporary break
from doing something difficult.
Do you know what, Becca?
I think I need a respite
from all this talk about training.
Now, what was the answer
to your question?
Ah yes, Phil!
I asked you which country had won the
most gold medals for artistic swimming
since the beginning
of the Olympic sport?
And I said I thought it was China.
Well, you're very close
geographically.
It is, in fact, Russia.
OK. Let's recap the vocabulary
we've learnt, starting with solo –
something done alone.
And duet –
something done by two people.
The idiom, hide behind a smile,
means to hide painful feelings
by presenting
a happy external appearance.
The phrase,
on the other hand,
is used to introduce
a contrasting opinion or statement.
Chillin' is slang for relaxing.
And finally, a respite is a break
from doing something difficult.
Once again, our six minutes are up,
but if you'd like to practise the
vocabulary you've learnt from this
or any of our other episodes,
then head over to our website,
bbclearningenglish.com,
for quizzes,
pronunciation tips and much more.
Thanks for joining us
and goodbye for now.
Bye!
Vocabulary
Word 1 of 15physically challenging
collocation
0:14
"difficult for your body; requiring a lot of physical effort."
More Listening Practice
About this lesson
Explore the world of artistic swimming, its history, and what it takes to compete at the highest level in this 6 Minute English episode.