When the Olympic synchronized swimmers plunge into the pool in Beijing s spectacular Water Cube this week, eight local women will be watching avidly.

They re synchronized swimmers themselves, members of the Blue Dolphins, who adore moving to music in water. What makes this Olympic event special for them is that the granddaughter of one a child who watched and mimicked their moves years ago is on the U.S. team.

The Dolphins, ages 63 to 88, swim Tuesday and Friday afternoons in four pools at their members homes. Winters, they paddle at the South Toledo YMCA, where an underwater sound system allows them to hear the music to which they have choreographed routines.

It s the joy of swimming. To us, there s nothing like moving to music, stretching our bodies, said Gail Conrad, the youngest Dolphin. In a West Toledo pool one recent afternoon, they re capped, goggled, nose-clipped, and launching into drills. Five, six, seven, eight, one calls out, and they re off. Right elbows jut up in unison and freeze for one count; right arms point back and hold for a count. The left arm repeats. Then, a walkover: laying on their backs, they lift a right leg up and over, followed by a left leg up and over.

And the most classic of synchro figures: shapely legs push straight up for a vertical, toes stretching skyward. It s sheer elegance and deceptively simple: below the surface, powerful arms are moving (called support sculling) to maintain balance for the half of the body that s above the surface.

We re in awe of the girls [the Olympians] but we can do quite a lot, said Ms. Conrad, who joined her first synchro group, the Desert Mermaids, in 1963 as a freshman at the University of Arizona.

Tight-knit precision

In the 1940s and 50s, each of these women was enchanted by aquatic movie star Esther Williams, whose underwater ballet inspired a generation. All are strong swimmers and most worked as lifeguards.

Now, after decades of friendly precision work, they re a tight-knit group, swimming for pleasure but no longer giving demonstrations.

We avoid the nerves and preparation, said Ms. Conrad. And maybe that doesn t keep us as sharp as if we had performances.

Many years ago, they d begin a performance with a pool-side dance routine, wearing costumes and headgear they would rip off before leaping into the water for the aquatic portion.

They re well aware that the training regimen for today s athletes has ramped up. In addition to being superb swimmers, the women who will compete in China this week have done weight training to strengthen their arms for sculling and their legs for a type of water-treading called the eggbeater.

Chances are the Olympians have also trained as gymnasts, which hones their timing, grace, splits, and twists. Some have studied ballet. And they ve worked to expand their lung capacity, aiming to hold their breath for two minutes.

They can complete seven downward spins (legs extending up out of water; body descending, corkscrew-like, until the swimmer is fully submerged). The Dolphins may be able to complete four such downward spins, Ms. Conrad said.

How often do their feet touch the bottom of the pool during a routine? Never.

Like the Olympians, Toledo s plucky Dolphins have conquered the basics: pikes (forward bends at the waist), arches (backward bends), tucks (knees to chest somersault), the eggbeater, and various forms of sculling.

Birth of a sport

The roots of synchronized swimming can be traced to 1907, when a muscular 21-year-old Australian, Annette Kellerman, who had taken up swimming as a child to strengthen her withered legs, staged diving and acrobatic-swimming performances in a glass tank at the New York Hippodrome. A few years earlier, she had attempted three times to swim the English Channel.

In addition to her traveling show, Kellerman advocated for women to be able to wear sleek one-piece swim suits, similar to what boys wore, instead of dresses that inhibited swimming and could even be dangerous. When she wore a mid-thigh one-piece suit on a beach near Boston, she was arrested for indecency.

Kellerman went on to star in aquatic-adventure movies, once diving 60 feet into a pool of live crocodiles and another time diving 92 feet into the sea. She designed and made her own mermaid costumes. And she was portrayed in the 1952 film, Million Dollar Mermaid, by statuesque beauty Esther Williams.

In 1915, American Katherine Curtis began devising swimming patterns done to music. She started a water ballet club at a university, then a team, and her 60-member Modern Mermaids troupe performed at the 1934 Chicago World s Fair.

At subsequent world fairs, Johnny Weissmuller (the ululating Tarzan film star and five-time gold Olympian swimmer) and Esther Williams performed to music. By 1941, synchronized swimming was recognized as a competitive sport by the Amateur Athletic Union.

Building skills

For Ellie Ruecker, synchro filled a painful chasm. She had just returned from a trip to her German homeland with her young family, a journey she paid for by ironing other people s clothing for years. She was deeply homesick.

In January, 1964, she was at the West Toledo YMCA when she heard music in the pool area and asked what was going on. It was water ballet.

I said, Oh, like Esther Williams, said Ms. Ruecker.

Not only is it wonderful for arms, shoulders, legs, and lungs, it s excellent for the mind, said Ms. Reucker, 79, who swims daily in her West Toledo home pool.

Nelgene Randall was in her late 40s when she signed up for an adult synchro class at the YMCA. When it was canceled, she joined a children s class, and showed so much promise that teacher Millie Penner invited her to join the Dolphins.

Ms. Randall, 70, rinses her blond hair with a garden hose on the grass after drills. She grew up on the water in Point Place, splashing happily in Maumee Bay until the polio scare of the 1940s and 1950s had parents yanking youngsters out of the water. Her biggest challenge in synchro has been getting down to the bottom of the pool.

I m extremely buoyant, said Ms. Randall, of Sylvania. She has learned to empty her lungs before going under, make her body rigid, and utilize particular sculls.

The Dolphins create their own routines when a member hears a piece of music she likes, listens to it repeatedly, writes out the synchro figures for it, and teaches it to the group. They built their skills by attending out-of-town workshops.

Members include Betty Smith Ensign, Trudy Uhlig, Marilyn Shuptrine, and Lucia Cooper.

Of the 29 Olympics, synchro has been a competition only six times. Between 1948 and 1968 it was performed at the

Olympics as an exhibition sport. In 1984, woman-only solo and duet categories were added, which have changed to duet and team categories. In both categories, there will be a technical contest, in which a prescribed routine is performed to music of the duet or team s choice, and a free-style contest.

Toledo connection

U.S. synchro team member Jillian Penner, 20, grew up in Seattle. On trips to Toledo, where her father, Craig Penner, grew up, she loved swimming with her grandmother, Millie Penner, the Dolphins unofficial coach for more than 40 years.

We d throw coins in the pool and she d dive for them for hours. She d try to get as many as she could before coming up, said Mrs. Penner, who was a chorus-line dancer for three years during the 1930s at Detroit s splendid Fox Theatre, and took up water ballet in the 1960s.

In her online Olympic profile, Jillian says her grandmother is her inspiration. As a child, Jillian took gymnastics, and when she visited Mrs. Penner, she d learn figures. Back in Seattle, she joined a synchro team.

As she got better, she was teaching us, said Mrs. Penner, 88.

Jillian had the blend of talent and determination required of world-class athletes. Before her senior year in high school, she joined one of the nation s best swim teams, in Walnut Creek, Calif., moved in with a host family, and enrolled in a new school.

She liked it, but it s always been a struggle, said Mrs. Penner.

Jillian has a swimming scholarship to attend Ohio State University in the fall.

I m just thrilled for her. I m loving her like a grandmother.

Contact Tahree Lane at: tlane@theblade.com or 419-724-6075.

First Published August 17, 2008, 10:50 a.m.