As a synchronized swimmer, how long can you hold your breath?

Here's a short reflection on my 14 years as a synchronized swimmer.

In the summer of 2010, I passed out during synchronized swimming training. I was on the Junior National USA Synchro Team for one summer, and the intensity was enough to make me realize I didn’t want to push for the National Team or the Olympics. College synchro felt like a better path.

Whenever people ask how long I can hold my breath, the passing-out story comes up. I’ve always brushed it off, just something that happened once, nothing serious. But recently, Cory pointed out how scary that sounded. It made me rethink how much I downplay the extremes we pushed through in the sport.

Looking back, I realize how much I normalized the intensity of that training. We were teenagers pushing our bodies to the limit, some blacking out or getting concussed, vomiting from exertion, and still expected to get back in the water. At the time, it felt like part of the process, just what it took to be great. But passing out wasn’t just a random incident. It was my body hitting a hard limit. Instead of seeing it as a red flag, I took it as confirmation that I wasn’t cut out for the highest level.

It’s strange how easy it is to minimize those moments. I never framed it as something dangerous, just a sign that I didn’t want it enough. But maybe that’s the wrong way to look at it. Maybe the real lesson isn’t that I lacked the drive, but that I understood my own limits, and that walking away from something that wasn’t right for me was its own kind of strength.