Countless hours of training outside of the pool, from yoga to conditioning, help keep Emily Drew afloat. Fifteen hours a week in the pool prepare the high school sophomore for one of the physically hardest sports there is; synchronized swimming. Naysayers might not get it, but it’s much harder than it looks.

“Most people say that it’s not a sport and that it’s too easy and it’s just like water ballet, but it’s actually one of the hardest sports,” said Drew, days before leaving for the Age Group National competition in upstate New York. “Some people actually do believe it’s hard, because they know what synchro is and they know that you can’t touch the bottom and you have to hold your breath.”

Drew has spent the last nine years in the sport, learning, perfecting and pushing herself to new limits. This summer she’ll head to California to train with the 13-15 age National team that will go to the Pan-Am games in Peru this fall. In the U.S. synchronized swimming competitions are divided by age groups, ranging from 10 and under through master’s competitions.

Drew got started at the age of six, after a sychnro coach saw her during swim lessons near the family’s home in Poulsbo, Wash. A couple years after she started on that team the Poulsbo coach retired, said Drew’s mom Stephanie.

“The Poulsbo coach retired so we commuted over to Seattle for three years, four to five days a week and then we made the decision to move over,” said Stephanie. Now the family, living in Kirkland, is much closer to the training and practices the team holds saving a great deal of time in the car.

Drew said in order to be successful, a swimmer has to be able to do figures, or the basic poses like a back layout, in which the body floats completely straight face up on the surface of the pool, or the split position, in which the body is vertical in the pool with one leg forward on the surface and the other extended backward.

“You have to be able to do figures, and you have to be able to hold your breath for a really long time and be very flexible,” said Drew. “And you have to be able to count to the music.”

“Emily is a great athlete to work with because of her dedication, motivation and competitive spirit,” said her trainer Kellie Nicholson. “When she is presented with a challengeshe just works hard and doesn’t stop until she has achieved her goal. She is so fun to work with – she has such a positive attitude, a sweet disposition and is such a polite, mature young lady.”

But the one question Drew said everyone asks isn’t easy to answer. She doesn’t actually know how long she can hold her breath for, but needless to say it’s a long time.

“That’s a question everyone always asks, but I don’t know because we measure it by lengths of the pool, not by seconds in workouts,” said Drew. “There’s not really a specific move (that is most challenging), but just swimming through the whole routine, because there’s no breaks, you are constantly moving.”

For Drew the constant swimming and holding her breath can present a challenge as she has asthma. Passing out during a competition, something which threatens any synchronized swimmer is an even more of a possibility for her. Thanks to medication the dangers are lessened, but the tiring routines can cause problems.

“We have to do a lot of workouts,” she said. “I go to the gym a couple times a week, and you have to be extremely strong in order to hold yourself up. You have to be holding yourself up without touching the bottom. I really like how it’s a team sport and it’s a really hard sport. It pushes you a lot. Sometimes at the end of a routine you don’t know if you are going to be able to finish because your legs are lead.”

Eight girls make up the local team, ranging from places like Olympia to Whidbey Island, but Stephanie Drew said the core of the team lives in the Seattle area.

Because of her abilities, Drew spends a lot of time traveling, competing throughout the year in different states and pools, but like many high level athletes she doesn’t get a lot of sight seeing time.

“She doesn’t get to see much besides the inside of the pool,” said her mom. One recent favorite: the pool in Indianapolis. Traveling also makes a traditional high school experience difficult for Drew. She attends the Family Learning Center, a program for homeschooling through the Lake Washington School District. Stephanie Drew said Emily was home schooled for several years, but this program seemed like a great fit.

“We home schooled for four or five years and then we found Family Learning Center and that has been a fabulous fit,” said Stephanie Drew. “It allows her the social aspect, the dances and those type of traditional high school things, but also allows her to focus on her training.” Drew attends classes full time two days a week and works the rest around her competition and training schedule.

But her focus remains on the pool and those routines, which despite her years in the sport, continue to get harder.

“When you are younger and learning routines, you think that’s the hardest its ever going to get,” said Drew of what surprises her about synchronized swimming. “But then the next year the routines just keep getting harder and harder. You get better, but the routines just keep getting even harder. I really like when we’re learning the routines at the beginning and I love working on lifts, that’s one of my favorite things to do.”

For her mom it’s more about how much Drew can still grow in the sport.

“As she says it’s getting harder, I see the improvement and think that she can’t get any better, but then next year she does,” said Stephanie Drew. Her trainer agrees.

“Emily is just a wonderful young lady who had the athletic drive and dedication of a much older person,” said Nicholson. “I am so excited for her, we all are here at Columbia Athletic Club. I will miss her this summer while she’s training in California, but I know she will learn so much and love the camaraderie of the team and the challenge of it all.”

In competition, teams are scored on a variety of aspects, including overall artistic impression, as well as being together, while matching the music.

“Teams are based on being sharp and together, you want to be completely together so it matches the music, but in solos you just have to focus on matching the music, not anyone else, so you don’t have to do counts to that routine. It tends to be more gracious,” said Drew. She said it’s just as easy to hear the music under the water and to count to it as above the surface.

Between the training, learning new routines, traveling and school Drew hopes to continue to advance in the sport for years to come.

“Next year or the year after I’d like to make the junior national team and I’d like to swim in college too,” she said.

While Drew pursues her dream the family will shoulder the cost of sending her to Nationals training, along with her other training and competition. The family will be holding a garage sale on Aug. 14 as a fundraiser, hoping to help with the $5,000 bill Drew’s National Team training will cost. Anyone else looking to help can contact the family at sdrew72595@hotmail.com.