TOWN OF TONAWANDA — Syncronized swimming often gets a negative repuation, a form of “water dancing” considered by many not to be a real sport, Town of Tonawanda Aquettes captain Alexis Clune said.

The International Swimming Federation, recognized by the Internation Olympic Commitee for administering international competition in the aquatic sports, did not introduce syncronized swimming as an Olympic sport until the 1984 Summer Games.

Truth be told, however, syncronized swimming is swiftly moving up the ranks as one of the hardest sports in the world.

Just ask Olympic gold medalist and Buffalo native, Steve Mesler, who on Friday joined the growing list of professional athletes — including fellow gold medalists Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug and Summer Sanders — to “synch” rather than swim in the U.S. Syncronized Swimming formal “Synch or Swim Challenge,” at the Town of Tonawanda Aquatic and Fitness Center.

“It doesn’t even look easy,” Mesler said. “I’ve always looked at this sport not sure if I could do it or pretty sure I couldn’t do it. Now I’m absolutely positive. There’s no chance I could do it.

“It gets a bad rep, but it’s one of those things that is so difficult and so technical and you have to work so hard at it more so than probably a lot of other sports. What these girls are doing is awesome.”

Mesler, with the help of the Aquettes, struggled mightily to even once successfully raise one leg out of the water.

Following a couple mounted lifts out of the water, Mesler decidely had enough.

“I can’t even sit out there and tread water for 10, 15 seconds at a time, let alone be out there for three hours,” he said. “It’s amazing. It’s exhausting.”

Because of the many aspects of the sport, which includes strength, endurance and technical training, includes months of practice and preparation to perfect, Aquettes head coach Karen Alvarez said.

“It’s a very difficult sport. There are so many aspects of training that the girls need,” Alvarez said. “They need to have really strong swimming skills — they spend a lot of time swimming laps; a lot of strength and conditioning; they have to be like a gymanist; they have to have the flexibilty portion of it, the acrobatic part of it, the dancer, all the grace, the choreography — There’s a lot of aspects of the sport.”

Alvarez’s teams, comprised of female athletes from ages 11 through 19, will host and compete in the 2010 United States Synchronized Swimming's eSynchro Age Group Championships.

 Synchronized swimming routines are scored on a scale of 100, half for artistic impression and the other on technical merit. Both are monitored by a panel of five judges during an event.

Aquettes swimmer Julia Grizanti said that synchronized swimmers typically start off as dancers or gymnasts.

“You have grace and talent and strength,” she said, “combine all those aspects then you get an athlete — a syncronized swimmer.”

Among the many techniques of sychronized swimming include sculling, in which a swimmer keeps his or her arms flush to their side, substituting their hands as a propeller to keep them afloat.

Also, a swimmer will perform an “eggbeater,” which is a form of treading water with the bottom half of one’s body.

“It’s the second hardest sport behind water polo and I get very annoyed when people call this water dancing,” Grizanti said. “We aren’t dancing. We are intense swimming. We don’t wear flower caps, we don’t touch the bottom. It’s hard as heck.”

The synch or swim challenge certainly provides outsiders with a hands on beginners look into the sport, but more importantly for the Aquettes, an added respect for the sport.

“It’s does make you feel good because no one realizes how hard it is until they try it,” Aquettes captain Alexis Clune said. “This sport gets made fun of, but once you get in and you try to do it, you realize how much work it actually takes just to stay above the water.”