Meet some of our former Olympian Aqualillies as they share their experience of competing in Artistic Swimming at the Olympic Games!

FRANCESCA “FRANKIE” OWEN (London, 2012)

Frankie represented Team Australia at the London 2012 Olympics (along with our other Australian ‘Lillies Olia, Jenny, and Eloise), and is now our Head of Aqualillies Australia as well as a Fine Art Photographer! She recently collaborated with the current Australian Artistic Swimming Olympic with “Ladies in Waiting”, an image series available as Fine Art prints through her website.

“I woke up this morning with a memory on facebook of me walking in the opening ceremony in the London Olympics, 2012. I’m now going to bed with such gratitude of coming full circle and being able to share my journey and creative eye with you all with these beautiful and talented ‘Ladies in Waiting’ for Tokyo 2020.

The ladies featured in the series are the Australian Artistic Swimming Olympians, who are on the precipice of competing at the Tokyo Olympics. This collection is my most personal yet, bringing me back to my own Olympics experience in 2012 where I wasn’t able to compete in the team event; naturally I was devastated but it is a reminder that at times life is unsynchronised and that there’s beauty in the imperfection.

It felt serendipitous to create this series, at the pool I used to train in and was a deep privilege to capture these talented athletes through my lens. This was ever more surreal as I could relate to their experience, and so intimately understand how they might be feeling.
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I hope you enjoy this series, and can take some positive meaning away from the collection. After all, we are all Ladies in Waiting, in some way or another… good luck to the dedicated ladies, finally able to get their time in Tokyo 💫”

MARGA CRESPÍ (London, 2012)

Our California ‘Lilly Marga is an Olympic Champion from Spain, winning the Bronze Medal in the Team Event at the London 2012 Olympics. After her Olympic career, she went on to coach artistic swimming teams around the world, and swam in the Wynn Las Vegas show “La Rêve” as well. Marga performs with Aqualillies in live events and on-camera projects!

“I am super lucky to say that I’ve been in the Olympics in different roles. In 2012 I was a swimmer and we were fighting for the medal, which we won. In 2016 I went as a coach for the Colombian duet and the experience felt completely different. As a swimmer, you have control and you know what you have to do. As a coach, you teach through your experience. But you don’t have control, since you’re not the one in the pool.

Being a swimmer brought me a lot of experience and learning and I was grateful to pass this knowledge on the Colombian duet. I never imagined that I could connect with them so well to lead them, with the head coach Paula Garcia, to their second Olympic Games.

If you have passion for something, it’s beautiful to share it with others that seek the same. It’s been a beautiful journey to experience both sides in my sport.”

NADINE BRANDL

Our Vegas ‘Lilly Nadine is a two-time Olympian, representing Austria in the Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Olympics. After her Olympic career, she went on to swim in the Wynn Las Vegas show “La Rêve” until it shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Nadine performs with Aqualillies in events across the US West Coast, and is a featured performer in Cirque Du Soleil’s Las Vegas show “Ô”.

“People often asked me what it was like to compete in the Olympics and I often felt like ‘indescribable’ sums it up the best. It is an overwhelming experience on so many levels, but what stuck out to me, that in a way it felt like coming home. When I walked through the Olympic village, I knew that this was the one place in the world at this time, where all like-minded athlete came together that worked so hard for their dream. Everyone here was going through similar hard work, dedication, sacrifices to achieve this lifetime dream called Olympic Games. It was like the air was energized with this magic.

At my second Olympic Games in London 2012 my family was able to be in the audience and watch. Me and my partner had quite a good swim, and it meant the world to me that I had my family cheering in the crowd and experiencing those days with me, that we have worked so hard for every single day over so many years.”

MARGAUX CHRÉTIEN (Rio 2016)

Following the Rio 2016 Olympics, Margaux Chrétien, one half of the France duet, joined Aqualillies Europe! She shared a few words with us about her experience this past summer at the Olympic games.

“A Rio, j’ai vécu mes plus grosses émotions en terme de sport. Tout était grand, tout était beau (évidemment on embellit tout quand c’est nos premiers jeux) mais surtout une phrase revenait sans cesse: on y est ou encore ça y est, c’est MAINTENANT… évidemment ça met de la pression car tout le monde est méga prête, tout le monde est à son top niveau la compétition était passionnante, nous étions 5 duos à nous battre pour la 8e place ça n’était pas une médaille , mais nous avons vécu cette 8e place comme telle le plus agréable c’est que au moment de la compétition, tout paraissait limpide… nous avons répété nos chorés énormément de fois et dans des situations très différentes… nous étions prêtes à tout affronter. Je me souviens encore de cette montée d’adrénaline à chaque fois que nous sortions de la chambre d’appel pour avancer vers la plage de départ. C’était fou. Aujourd’hui je me demande comment j’ai fais pour ne pas flancher. C’était l’étape ultime de ma carrière, les JO, l’évênement que le monde entier suit, les personnes que j’aime le plus au monde étaient présentes dans les gradins. Quand nous avons su que nous étions 8e, nous avons pleuré de joie. Ca ne pouvait pas être plus parfait!”

“In Rio, I felt the most amazing emotions for this sport. Everything was so grand, so beautiful (it was my first Olympics so I felt like a little kid!), and I kept telling myself: Here we are! This is it, it’s right NOW! Obviously we had to deal with a lot of pressure because all the athletes were so prepared, and everybody was at their best for this event. The competition was intense, there were 5 duets fighting for the 8th place in the preliminaries. It wasn’t a medal, but we proudly took 8th place. The most powerful feeling is that, in the moment of the competition, everything feels so natural. We worked so hard in so many competitions leading up to Rio, we were so ready! I still remember the rush of adrenaline when we went out from the call room. It was crazy!!
Actually, now, I’m asking myself how did I not gave up! It was the ultimate step of my career, the Olympics Games, the event that everybody in the world is following. All the people I love the most in my life were in the pool bleachers, and when we knew that we were 8th, we immediately started weeping with joy. It could not have been better!”