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Water sports in Spain
While the popularity of sports in Spain has mostly been dominated by football and rugby, the country also excels at many other popular sports, among them popular water sports like Water polo and Synchronized swimming. In these areas of sport, the Spanish nation is regarded to belong amongst the best teams across the world, with the teams competing at a national, international and Olympic level. In both sports Spain has been very successful, winning several silver medals at the Olympics and even gold on occasion. Water sports in Spain can still not compare to other sports like soccer and even motor racing in terms of popularity throughout the nation, but in recent years the popularity of the water sports has been on the rise, and is slowly and steadily gaining ground throughout Spain.
Water Polo
Water polo is a team sport consisting of two teams, each with 6 players in the field and one keeper. The rules are simple; the winner of the game is the team that lands the most goals. Skills necessary to play the game are swimming, strength and endurance. The game has features of many other games like handball and occasionally with ice hockey, to which it is often compared because of the occasional “roughness” of the game, with clashes between opposing team players, similar to what you would see during an Ice hockey event.
The official Spanish water polo team is regarded to be amongst the best teams in the world, during the nineties the team was at the height of its success. Among their victories are winning the silver medal at the Olympic Games in 1992, and winning gold at the 1996 Olympic Games, which remains their ultimate achievement to date.
Spain's official water polo team was again victorious at the World Aquatics Championships of 1998, and they repeated the victory in 2001. The team reached silver at the more recent FINA World Championships, which were held in Rome in 2009. In 1991 they also won silver at the event and repeated the occurrence in 1994 during the World Aquatics Championship.
Synchronized swimming
Synchronized swimming is a mixture of swimming, dance and gymnastics, and can be done by solo performers and also teams in different varieties and amounts of team members. The athletes in question perform a routine of complicated moves in the water on the rhythm of the music that is played. In order to be able to participate in the sport, advanced swimming abilities are required, and it takes strength, grace and timing. With activities above and below the water surface, great breath control is also an essential skill a professional synchronized swimming athlete must master.
During the last decade, Gemma Mengual, born on April 12th 1977 in Barcelona, in the Catalonia region of Spain, won a whole range of medals for Spain, for both; individual performances, and team efforts in all the important synchronized swimming events on an International level. This includes winning the silver medal at the Olympic games of 2008 in Beijing. She also competed in the Olympics of 2000 and 2004.
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