05/28/2026
Over the May 23rd–25th training weekend, several of our athletes had the exciting opportunity to participate in a research study led by Dr. Erin Williams and Rebekah Lee focused on the effects artistic swimming has on the heart.
As part of the study, athletes wore heart rate monitors during various aspects of training while researchers gathered information about the unique physical demands of our sport.
This research is especially timely in today’s artistic swimming environment, where athletes are continually pushing higher degrees of difficulty, resulting in more intense apnea demands and prolonged underwater work during routines.
The study is specifically looking at how artistic swimming affects the heart and helping researchers better understand why fainting can sometimes occur in our sport. Artistic swimming creates a very unique physiological situation because athletes are often exercising maximally while simultaneously holding their breath underwater. Some of these signals tell the heart rate to speed up, while others tell it to slow down.
Researchers know from previous studies that these conflicting signals — scientifically referred to as “autonomic conflict” — can sometimes confuse the heart and potentially contribute to fainting episodes.
Because artistic swimmers train under these conditions so regularly, studies like this are incredibly important in helping us better understand how the heart adapts to the demands of artistic swimming, and at what point these stresses may move from manageable adaptations to potential safety concerns.
We are incredibly grateful to Dr. Erin Williams and Rebekah Lee for including Victoria Artistic Swimming in this important and fascinating research. Our athletes loved learning more about the science behind their sport, and we are very excited to follow the outcomes of the study moving forward.
AthleteDevelopment Synchro TeamVictoria