Swimming Pretty gives the reader a rather comprehensive look at the history of women in swimming and all the different forms that it has taken over the years. The early chapters focus mainly on the barriers that women encountered just trying to learn how to swim, whether that be due to the lack of facilities for women, the bathing costumes encouraging drowning rather than swimming, or the idea that women were too delicate to exert themselves in the water. The irony was that people loved to watch women perform in aquatic acts and the popularity of these acts meant that eventually it was easier for women to learn to swim. The book traces the history of swimming for performance whether that be ornamental swimming or on the silver screen. Finally, in the last few chapters readers get to learn about the fight to get synchronized swimming, now artistic swimming, recognized as an Olympic sport.

I grew up swimming competitively and dabbled in some synchro when I was a kid, so I thought I would enjoy this book more than I did. The early chapters felt like they all blurred together with the various iterations of swimming for performance, struggles with swimsuits, and a lot of names and dates being thrown at you. The chapters felt quite repetitive and I think if they had been more organized around themes rather than chronology they could have been better. I did enjoy the later chapters about Esther Williams and the Olympics much more because they felt like they had a stronger narrative. If anyone is looking for facts about women swimming for performance, this would be the book for them.

Just in time for the summer Olympics, with up-to-date terminology (synchronized swimming is now known as artistic swimming), author Vicki Valosik writes a well-researched book about the history of swimming and the evolution of synchronized swimming. I was fascinated by the cultural views on swimming during the colonial and Victorian eras in the US, as well as overseas. As swimming evolved, so too did the swimsuit, swim entertainment, and swimming as a sport.

I learned a lot about the athleticism, and the artistry, and the author made the case that there can be room for both aspects in synchronized/artistic swimming. I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys synchronized swimming!

A fascinating and well-researched look into the history of synchronized swimming. The author does a great job with maintaining a complicated timeline while adding just enough biographical detail of the main players.

Swimming Pretty is not just a book about what we now know as synchronized swimming. It follows the throughline of women earning the right to be swimmers at all — recreationally and competitively. From aquacade stunt shows to endurance swims across the English Channel, these swimmers showed their strength and determination in and out of the water.

Full review at https://www.mwgerard.com/review-swimming-pretty/

This was the type of history book that I absolutely gobble up -- the history of something that I've never stopped and asked "how did this come to be?" Valosik traces the history of what is now called artistic swimming, but most of us know as synchronized swimming. Beginning in ancient Greece and Rome and through the renaissance, to Benjamin Franklin. I appreciated how gendered this historical analysis was, with Valosik tracing the ways in which swimming was viewed as an elegant, artistic, feminine, and White sport for "proper ladies." The inclusion of Hollywood and the grand shows was also wonderful. In fact, the part about competitive synchronized swimming was, to me, the least interesting part of the entire book!

I don't know about you, but I didn't realize how much history there was to swimming! From Benjamin Franklin and his scientific swimming to ornamental swimming to changing gender roles regarding swimming to lifeguarding to circus acts to Olympics to synchronized swimming to to to! So much interesting bits to learn about the role of swimming in gender relations, relations to the water, entertainment development and changing fashions! My favourite part of the book has to just seeing how slowly over time people's reactions to women's swimwear changing, and how women were all along being like 'yeah it was dowdy and saggy and totally tried to drown us'. It was a refreshing read during the hot days of summer!

Exploring the history of swimming and of women’s relationship with aquatic sports and leisure time, Vicki Valosik brings this overlooked sporting realm to life in this fantastic book. Exploring a century of women’s swimming in Europe and North America, Valosik’s book draws on fascinating documentation to create a picture of the sport and how it fits into a larger narrative of women’s athletics. Including famous names like Esther Williams and Gertrude Ederle, this book tracks the individual and professional development of women’s aquatic sports, with an emphasis on competition, performance, and, eventually, synchronized swimming. This comprehensive history of women swimmers and the evolution of the performative aspect of women’s swimming is a fascinating exploration into the sport and its history particularly in the months leading up to the fortieth anniversary of synchronized swimming’s rise to the Olympics and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. With a clear and engaging prose style concisely breaking down the relevant documents, Valosik also includes some incredible visual aids representing the growth of the sport from the technical and instructor’s perspectives, allowing the reader to visualize this performative sport. An informative, engaging, and detailed read, fans of women’s sports and the histories of women athletes are sure to enjoy this deep dive into women’s aquatic sports history.

The book is divided into ten chapters, as follows: Science, Stage, Stardom, Safety, Slideshow, Sport, Synching Up, Spectacle, Silver Screen, and Swimming Synchronized.

I enjoyed the chapters on the history of swimming lessons and the development of the sport of synchronized swimming the most. The chapters on the vaudeville and movie performances weren’t my favourite, but they were equally well-written so I think it’s just a matter of personal preference.

The book is well-organized for the most part, but I occasionally had some issues keeping track of the timeline and the names of the people referenced. Nevertheless, the book was very well-researched and I thought that the addition of some photos throughout was a nice added touch.

Thank you to Liveright and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Fun and fascinating history of swimming spectacles and women's roles in them, from live performance to movies

A really delightful history of synchronized swimming (or, as it is now termed, "artistic swimming") which begins with Benjamin Franklin's experiments in swimming and continues through to the present day. Of necessity it's as much a history of swimmers as it is of synchronized swimming, and Valosik spends a ton of time in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as women fought to be allowed to swim at all - somehow it's not easy to disport oneself gracefully in water when wearing an ankle-length wool outfit "for modesty." Valosik clearly did a ton of research, pulling together information on early Victorian "water queens" (women who made a living paddling around in tanks of water for the delectation of viewers), early women speed and distance swimmers, women divers, women's fight to get physical education approved in colleges, etc., and her writing is easy to follow and engaging.

Personally, I haven't been a swimmer since my high school days, but watching the last Olympics I was mesmerized by the artistic swimmers: talk about "backwards and in high heels" - "rhythmic gymnastics mostly underwater" takes athletic challenge to a whole new level. Valosik writes with an appreciation for what the sport requires and what it took for the men and women whose history she chronicles to move it forward as a sport and a recreational activity both.

Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water by Vicki Valosik is a thorough and detailed exploration and history of female swimmers and their challenges and achievements.