In the martial-ballet world of synchronized swimming, few do it better than Kenyon Smith.
Ask Smith, a member of the famed Santa Clara Aquamaids, about winning a spot on the U.S. Olympic team and the answer comes right back: “I think I should.”
Coaches and teammates agree.
But when the national team heads to Beijing this summer, 18-year-old Smith will have to stay behind.
Looming over all the superlatives, skills and statistics is this: Smith is a man.
The sport’s international rules — which govern Olympic picks — ban men from synchronized swimming.
Smith’s predicament, a twist on the typical refrain about glass ceilings and gender, hasmade waves around the world this week, raising basic questions about fairness and sports.
It has reignited calls for opening up a sport traditionally viewed as a stronghold forwomen. And it has tugged at something more universal: When you know you can take something you love only so far, why push on?
“It’s the one thing I know that makes me happy,” Smith said recently from the edge of a Santa Clara pool while nine other teammates practiced their tilts. “I’m not ready to leave.”
That said, he added, “I’m sad about it. I’ve got goals in the sport that I can’t reach.”
Numbers game
Virginia Jasontek, president of USA Synchro, is sympathetic.
She raves about Smith, saying “certainly we’re supportive in the United States.” But before the U.S. federation formally petitions the Federation Internationale de Natation to add mixed or men’s events, she said, more countries will have to showcase male stars.
“I don’t know how long that’ll take,” she said. “It’s hard to say that, for Kenyon’s sake, but we don’t have enough countries developed in terms of males.”
Nine years ago in Boulder, Colo., Smith followed his big sister Layla into the pool on a lark.
At first, his sights weren’t set so high. He heard it from bullies. He had doubts. He thought about quitting.
“It was a hard time,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue.”
Then something clicked, beyond the realization that there are worse things than “being in a pool with 10 girls.”
So when Layla, 21, nursing Olympic aspirations of her own, moved to the South Bay almost four years ago to train, Kenyon was right behind her again. Eventually they became a duet.
The two still are holding out hope, however slim, that Kenyon can follow Layla one more time, taking their routine — “The Toreador and the Cape” — to the biggest stage possible.
Proposals to change the sport’s rules can only be made every four years — and Jasontek said she wouldn’t expect a petition from the U.S. federation until at least 2013, if then.
“You have to have that worldwide participation,” she said. “That takes development. That takes time.”
Chris Carver, 63, the Aquamaids’ longtime leader and a former coach of the U.S. team, remembers when a similar pitch was rebuffed in 2001.
“What it will take to get it up for consideration, I don’t know,” she said. “It’s technical and very political — very political.”
His role model
Although Smith remains something of an oddity in his sport, he isn’t unique. Not only is Smith not the first male to roil synchronized swimming, he’s not even the first Aquamaid.
That distinction goes to Bill May. Ten years ago, May, a former national champ who also shook the foundations of his sport, saw his Olympic hopes snuffed, too.
May, now 29, is performing with Cirque du Soleil at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.
When Smith first joined the Aquamaids, May was his coach, and Smith says he’s remained both a mentor and role model through the years.
With serious talk among national team officials that changes are at least five years away, Smith might be nearly as old as May before he gets his Olympic chance. That would mean he’d have to wait until 2016 at the earliest, when he’d be 26.
“It’s probably not the answer Kenyon wants to hear. That’s young, though, in Olympic terms,” Jasontek said. “Twenty-six, 27, 28 — that’s still within his range.”
In the meantime, Smith will keep training with his sister, who also will be staying back this summer after a back injury knocked her out of Olympic qualifiers last year.
They are looking forward to a meet in Switzerland this summer and hope to qualify for the second-tier national team, which has looser eligibility rules than the main national squad.
They’ll also be rooting for the four Aquamaids who will be competing in Beijing.
As part of the Olympic push, the whole club is preparing for an exhibition, featuring the U.S. team, that they’ll be hosting in May. And Smith will keep battling for his Olympic spot, too.
“I really think he deserves to go,” Layla Smith said after playfully spiking Kenyon’s hair. “It’s hard for me to watch him train as hard as the other girls and not be able to follow his dream.”
Contact Denis C. Theriault at dtheriault@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5035.
