Swimming Pretty—which Publisher's Weekly described as "an incisive marriage of sports and cultural history"—traces a century of aquatic performance, from vaudeville to the Olympic arena and brings to life the colorful cast of characters whose “pretty swimming” not only laid the groundwork for the sport of synchronized swimming but forever changed women’s relationships with water. Far more than bathing beauties, these swimming starlets ushered in sensible swimwear and influenced lifesaving and physical education programs, helping to drop national drowning rates and paving the way for new generations of female athletes. Published by W.W. Norton
Vicki Valosik is a writer, editorial director, and writing instructor at Georgetown University, as well as a competitive synchronized swimmer. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Smithsonian, Time, The American Scholar, LitHub, and Slate, among other publications. Her debut book, Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water (W. W. Norton, 2024), explores how generations of pioneering female swimmers challenged social conventions, expanded opportunities for women in the water, and laid the groundwork for a new Olympic sport.
