Ellen Scott is 64-years-old and has been an artistic swimmer (previously known as synchronized swimming) for over 15 years. Part of her journey is featured in the new documentary Unsyncable.
Being a part of the documentary she felt a bit vulnerable. The film follows artistic swimmers 60 and older through their lives while they train in the sport. They have gone through life struggles and contend with ageist stereotypes. The swimmers are shown getting prepared to head to the U.S. Masters Artistic Swimming Championships.
Unsyncable premieres on VisionTV Monday at 9 p.m. It can be streamed online.
Video from Unsyncable courtesy of Tell Tale Productions.
“To have a film crew follow you around is weird,” Scott said. There is a part of the film where she is doing land drills to practice and visualize her routine. Then she gets on a city bus with the documentary crew.
Scott is part of the Royal City Artistic Swimming Club, formally known as the Guelph Synchronized Swim Club, and she practices her solos there.
“I recruit people from everywhere. Right out of the dressing room or walking down … a street or sitting on a bus or especially anybody in the pool, anybody I meet I'm like come join synchro, come join synchro,” she said.
Scott was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2008. When she was at a diagnostic clinic in Toronto the doctor recommended she try submerging herself in water.
“Being in the water stops me from having pain,” she said in the documentary.
Scott started her journey at the YMCA and “at that point, I was basically limping and struggling to get from the bus stop into the building,” she said in an interview with GuelphToday.
For the first six months she sat in the hot tub. “And within a few weeks I started to notice a huge improvement then that spurred me on to continue to go,” she said.
She met a woman who brought her two grandchildren to the YMCA where they were trained in artistic swimming. They invited Scott to a water show where a recreational team performed. From then on she was hooked.
“When I discovered synchro it was just like this is the only thing in the world that has value if it's not related to synchro it's not,” said Scott.
“It gives me such a good feeling of confidence in myself that I can do something. And you need that as you get older you need to be able to do that.”
She started recreational artistic swimming at KW Synchronized Swimming, now Waterloo Region Artistic Swim Club. Then the following year she swam competitively solo.
“I think people thought I was a little bit crazy even trying to go to competitions because honestly I couldn't swim very well. Like I mean I was really not very good,” Scott said.
In her first competition she walked away with a bronze medal because she only competed with two other people.
“Well, the first thing I'd say to anybody is that what a gift it is at any age to feel passionate about something, something that you really love,” she said.
As much as she loves doing solos Scott wants to be a part of a team. The women at her club in Guelph are on average 30-years-old. “Those girls are so young and strong. I can't keep up with them. I wish I could,” she said.
“So I practice my solo and they practice team and I guess we're going to go through the season cheering for each other.”
“What I really want to see come out of the Unsyncable movie is that it would inspire people … to take their own journey into being active,” she said.
