At Spyns, we are getting excited about the games 18 months before they start. I am guessing young Team USA synchronized swimmer Christiana Butera might have a little bit more to be excited about it. She might get to be in the Olympics!!!!! I’m just excited to be going to see her. If you would like to be one of our clients, get the 5 star Olympic treatment, and be as excited as I am about the London 2012 Games then, have a look at our website, chat with Ryan King (company president/fun guy/guide) and see the tour options we have created for you.
Christiana Butera of Mount Helix area makes Team USA in synchronized swimming for July world championships. She brought college team to La Mesa in December.
As co-captain of the Wheaton College synchronized swimming team, Christiana Butera has to focus on Saturday's season opener—the Wheaton Invitational. But nobody can blame her if her mind drifts to China and this coming July.
Butera, 20, surprised even her coach this month by making the U.S. national team in her sport, which will seek medals at the 14th FINA World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai. The world swim meet will hold synchro events July 16-23.
"Christiana is seeing if she can somehow work out school and training (she is a serious student, too); so we will find out ... if she can juggle both to participate," said Teresa Butera, her mother.
The Buteras live in the Mount Helix area. And in late December and early January, her family hosted members of Christiana's Wheaton College team, which trained at the La Mesa Municipal Pool, where Olympic legend Greg Louganis learned to dive.
Butera made the dozen-member Team USA by competing at mid-January tryouts in Indianapolis. Despite her relative short height (5-feet-2), she beat out dozens of the best swimmers in America.
"I'm not going to lie," said Rebecca Story, the Wheaton College coach. "I was pretty surprised. Going in, we we were hoping for a place, but we were also going to be happy with just the experience."
Story said Butera will have to re-tryout for the 2012 Olympic team, "so next year she'll go through the same process again and hopefully beat out the competition as she did this year."
Butera isn't built like the average top-notch synchro swimmer, Story said, but "she's got the heart, motivation and determination to make up for her missing inches. Her talent is the direct product of sheer work ethic and passion for what she does."
Story called Butera an incredibly smart swimmer, who "has learned how to power through most anything, and when I say 'smart' I don't just mean in the classroom. Synchro has so much to do with feeling, knowing how to move your body the right way, extension, quickness and the right mental perseverance.
From the first time she met Christiana, Story said, "I knew we'd make a great team. She posseses many of the qualities I've come to expect from all my athletes. To have a swimmer that exemplifies all my expectations is a true blessing."
Wheaton College, a private liberal-arts school of 1,600 south of Boston, has always been very supportive of the synchro program, Story said, "so between Wheaton and my coaching staff, we've been able to supply her with some of the best resources for training."
Butera was selected for the team and combo events only—not the individual event.
Butera was selected for the team and combo events only—not the individual event.
"We're still working out the logistics for her training program," Story said. The national team this week started training at the natatorium of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and sponsor St. Vincent Sports Performance.
"Right now our focus has turned towards our collegiate season with the first meet being January 29 at home," Story said.
"Right now our focus has turned towards our collegiate season with the first meet being January 29 at home," Story said.
Butera attended Academy of Our Lady of Peace in high school.
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