Ahead of the 2024 Olympics which start next week, an interesting sport that people watch during this season is artistic swimming. Formerly known as synchronized swimming, the sport’s name changed not long after the Rio Olympics in 2016.
There are a handful of artistic swimming teams in Virginia, including one in the Hampton Roads area. The swimmers are called the Mystiques Synchro Team, which is based in Gloucester.
Ariana Parodi-Gibson, head coach and founder of the team, started the Mystiques in 2002 while working at the Brittingham-Midtown Aquatics Center with Dan Jones. The Mystiques became her personally owned team in 2006. Parodi-Gibson is originally from California, but has lived most of her life in Gloucester and graduated from Gloucester High School in 2001. She has been around the sport since she was very young and has been coaching for about 22 years.Parodi-Gibson describes artistic swimming as a beautiful mix of dance, gymnastics and race swimming. 
“You have to have the gr...