Artistic Swimming used to be known as Synchronized Swimming at the Olympic Games, it also used to be just for women. But if Bill May makes his Olympic debut in Paris for Team USA, it will be a dream 35 years in the making.
What do you think of when you hear the words synchronized swimming? A lot of people think like the movies back with like Esther Williams and like the flower caps. There's actually a lot you may not know about this Olympic sport first, it's now called artistic swimming and it's not all flower caps in cinema, it's a difficult, intense and painstakingly detailed sport. And as of this year after decades of athletes working for a rule change, it's no longer only an Olympic sport for women. I'm training for the Olympic Games. That's something that no one can ever take back. You say you have, Bill May started artistic swimming as a young boy back in 1989 and quickly proved himself as one of the top athletes in the sport. But since men weren't allowed to compete on the biggest stage, Bill had to watch from the stands as the US won bronze at the 2004 Athens Olympics, unable to participate in the Olympics. Instead, Bill took his talents to Las Vegas and performed at Cirque Du Soleil for nearly two decades. Bill is a hard worker. He's a dreamer and I think he accomplishes everything that he goes for. He's a legend. We always saw him as an extremely inspiring person. Not on me, he was trying on top of it. He was the best, but he was not allowed to compete. But instead of giving up, he kept going, he kept fighting and becoming better and better until they opened the competition to males. Bill came out of retirement once the new rule went into effect and earned his spot back on the US national team. The last time I trained with a team was in 2002. When I first joined the sport, you could dream and you could aspire to be an Olympian, but it wasn't something that was actually possible. Now you can see these young male athletes and say one day you are going to be an Olympian, you have the opportunity to stand on that podium, hear your national anthem and be proud of all the work that you've done your entire life.