About Us
Who is TASC?
The Toronto Artistic Swimming Club, formerly known as Toronto Synchronized Swimming Club or Toronto Synchro, is a not-for-profit sports club serving the city of Toronto. We are run by a volunteer parent board and offer a full range of programs for swimmers of all ages and skill levels. From young swimmers beginning the sport to masters swimmers with decades of experience, we have something for everyone.
Our programs include: (following LTAD model)
Our Values
Toronto Artistic Swimming Club is a friendly and inclusive community of athletes and coaches that nurtures and promotes confidence, excellence, strength of character and life-long athleticism in a positive and energizing team environment.
Our Program Goals
Introduce the sport of artistic swimming to youth and adult newcomers in a positive and fun environment.
Develop life and leadership skills in all our athletes, creating a community built on support and respect.
Provide competitive pathways and coaching for excellence to maximize our athletes’ potential.
Provide high-quality and cost-effective programs.
Ensure our sport remains accessible to all athletes, regardless of financial circumstance.
Have fun and build a supportive community.
Our Story
The Toronto Artistic Swimming Club has a rich history. The club was founded as the Scarborough Leaside Aquamaids in 1977.
In 1987, it was incorporated as a not-for-profit and renamed the Toronto Synchronized Swimming Club, known as Toronto Synchro, to better reflect its place as a central Toronto club, mostly swimming out of the U of T athletic centre, as well as its original home in Leaside.
The club has steadily grown and now offers one of the largest and most diverse programs in the GTA. From 2 original locations, the club now runs recreational programs in multiple downtown and midtown locations, uses facilities at 2 universities (U of T and TMU), as well as 2 U of T campuses (St. George and Scarborough), and offers the most choice of any club in terms of both location and type of program. The club has been a founding or anchor club in several aquatic facilities, such as Pam McConnell Aquatic Centre (formerly Regent Park Aquatic Centre) as well as the premier training facility in the country, Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC).
The club has been an innovator in several areas, such as offering a bursary program to help remove barriers to the sport; offering programs in locations typically underserved by aquatic programs (eg. Thorncliffe Park, St. Jamestown, Regent Park); working with Vicki Keith to develop effective programming and coach training for our athletes with disabilities program; and developing our ‘Synchro Skills’ program, offering a wide range of recreational training levels for swimmers to continuously progress and be challenged while remaining in a once per week program.
Many of the key figures in Ontario artistic swimming today were once Toronto Synchro swimmers. In 2022, we proudly celebrated our 45th anniversary as a club. As part of the FINA-mandated name change to artistic swimming in 2019, Toronto Synchronized Swimming Club was formally renamed Toronto Artistic Swimming Club.
Though our name has changed since 1977, the club continues to grow and provide a supportive, high quality, team-based environment for athletes of all ages, genders and abilities.
What Is Artistic Swimming?
Known as ‘synchro’ to many, artistic swimming combines swimming, dance and gymnastics, with athletes performing a synchronized sequence of elaborate movements in the water, accompanied to music.
Toronto Artistic Swimming club is part of a larger network of governing bodies: provincial (Ontario Artistic Swimming or OAS); national (Canadian Artistic Swimming or CAS), and international (Federation Internationale de Natation or FINA).
Artistic swimmers can train and compete in teams of up to 10 people, or in smaller groups and even by themselves. The sport is extremely demanding; athletes develop advanced water skills, great flexibility, strength and endurance, as well as precision, teamwork and artistic flare. Athletes train on land to develop core strength, coordination and agility. They also develop speed swimming skills to enhance their cardiovascular capacity and endurance. In a routine, these skills are judged on the basis of their difficulty and how well they are synchronized both among the swimmers and to the music. Through teamwork, they develop self-discipline and self-confidence.
Scientists have dubbed artistic swimming the “it sport” as it combines physical skills learned in dance, gymnastics, acrobatics, speed swimming, Pilates and yoga, as well as mental and artistic training in musical development, choreography, acting and stage-performance.
