Swimming Pretty Audiobook By Vicki Valosik cover art

Swimming Pretty

The Untold Story of Women in Water

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Swimming Pretty

By: Vicki Valosik
Narrated by: Sarah Welborn
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About this listen

"If you're not strong enough to swim fast, you're probably not strong enough to swim 'pretty," said a young Esther Williams to theater impresario Billy Rose. Since the nineteenth century, tensions between beauty and strength, aesthetics and athleticism have both impeded and propelled the careers of female swimmers—none more so than synchronized swimmers, for whom Williams is often considered godmother.

In this riveting history—the first of its kind—Vicki Valosik traces a century of aquatic performance, from vaudeville and dime museums to the Olympic arena. Williams, who became a Hollywood sensation for her splashy "aquamusicals," was just one in a long, bedazzled line of swimmers who began their careers as athletes but found greater opportunity, and often social acceptance, in the world of show business. Together, they not only laid the groundwork for synchronized swimming, but forever changed women's relationships with water.

Now, on the fortieth anniversary of synchronized swimming's elevation to Olympic status, Swimming Pretty finally honors the history of grit, glamour, and sheer athleticism of an utterly unique sport.

©2024 Vicki Valosik (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Olympics & Paralympics Water Sports Women
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Profile Image for Anne

A great history filled with delightful anecdotes

As a lifelong synchronized swimmer, I didn’t realize how little I knew about our sport’s origins. BEN FRANKLIN DID BALLET LEGS IN THE THAMES?? Professional high divers in the circuses in the 1900s dove from 50 feet into 5 feet of water? The history of swim lessons as an important feminist cause was also brand new to me. The Esther Williams story arc was especially fascinating for me - from stardom, to being hidden away as proper housewife, to her return as an Olympic commentator- there was so much more to her life story than the version I’d heard before. Loved this book, strongly recommend!!

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