Beneath the surface glitz and glitter, it’s been a rough tread for synchronized swimmer Becky Kim. Knee problems, back pain, concussions — she’s high-kicked hurdle after hurdle. Now more determined than ever, the 23-year-old athlete is ready to make the biggest splash of her career come August. 

She’s going for Olympic gold. 

“Sometimes I can’t fall asleep at night,” Kim giddily admits in a phone interview from her training grounds in Walnut Creek, Calif. “I dream about being on the podium and I get shivers in my body. I’ve been waiting so long for this moment. I’ve come over mountains.

Synchronized swimming still may not get the fanfare of its aquatic big brothers diving and speed swimming, but make no mistake, this sport is no dip in the pool.

A typical three-minute routine — performed in a deep swimming pool — can contain more than 30 formations, dozens of throws and lifts and choreography so demanding it would leave dancers on land out of breath.

Kim and her nine teammates practice for eight to 10 hours a day in and out of water, their schedule packed with circuit training, pilates sets, breathing exercises, group visualization sessions and even circus school. (Cool fact: The team members have spent numerous hours dangling from harnesses Cirque du Soleil-style at San Francisco’s CircusCenter, where they practice their lifts, flips and twists.) 

“When people think of synchronized swimming, they think of Esther Williams,” Kim says, referring to the 1940s-era athlete and movie star. “You know, those fancy shows. It’s understandable. That was the origin of the sport. But people don’t realize how much effort it takes to look effortless. We train our muscles. We train our lungs. We train our facial expressions. If people watched a synchronized swimming competition, they’d be amazed at how difficult it is.”

Training in Walnut Creek has been both convenient and meaningful for Kim, as it’s also the suburban community where she grew up. Kim, the middle child of three, says she was an “all-around athletic girl” who dabbled in all sorts of activities during her childhood, from figure skating to softball to golf. Her parents, now both missionaries, catered to her shifting interests. “If I didn’t like ballet, they’d say, ‘Why don’t you try gymnastics?’” she recalls. “If I didn’t like this, they’d say, ‘Then why don’t you try that?’”

One day, the Walnut Creek Aquanuts, a local synchronized swimming team, was practicing at the same pool facility where Kim was taking a swimming lesson. At the age of 9, she was entranced by the music and “what all those legs were doing out of the water.”

Kim had never heard of synchronized swimming before, but she knew she wanted to try it.

In 1996, when Kim watched the U.S. synchronized swimming team win the gold medal at the Olympics in Atlanta, her motivation soared. “That’s when I started dreaming about the Olympics,” she says. “I got really competitive.”