SEATTLE – Two teenagers with Seattle connections are among first official members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic team and they compete in a sport that gets more ridicule than respect

The "team synchronized swimmers" qualified to compete in Beijing by winning gold at the recent Pan Am Games.

On the team are Jillian Penner and Brooke Abel, both 19-years-old. In the Olympic pool with their teammates, the routine will be a lung-bursting, muscle-wrenching aquatic dance number.

Eight swimmers.  One mind. No touching the bottom of the pool.

"You have to be all on the same page mentally.  You have to be thinking the same thing.  Breathing at the same time.  Everything has to be the same," says Jillian.

Jillian was born and raised in Seattle and has been in the pool pretty much non-stop since she was eight-years-old.  She swam the backstroke on the Roosevelt High team and credits her grandmother, now 87 and still swimming, with getting her started in synchro.

"She's a synchronized swimmer.  She has a little group in Ohio.  They always get together and bring little treats and candies and then they'll swim together," says Jillian.

Brooke is a Californian whose mom, Julie, is the head coach of the Seattle Synchronized Swim Team.  Both girls served as assistants for the team's summer camp.  The coach is still a bit stunned her daughter is an Olympian.

"Unreal.  It's surreal to think that we are privileged to represent the U.S.  We're very patriotic.  The thought of it all.  I'm very proud," says Julie Abel.

Jillian's dad, Craig, helps run the Seattle club.  He has watched the little girl who loved to swim grow up into a world class athlete.

"It's an amazing process, it really is and how it all happened, I don't know.  I really don't. We paid the bills and she kept wanting to go to the pool," says Craig Penner.

That drive is still there.  Jillian and Brooke train six days a week.

"We have an eight-to-ten hour day.  Six-to-eight in the water alone.  Then we have cardio and weights and maybe Pilates or stretching," says Brooke.

And yes, they both know people love to poke fun at synchronized swimming.  Synchro just doesn't get much respect.

"It is a sport.  I'd like to see them try it.  It's hard," says Jillian.

But in one form or another, this kind of show has long held a fascination for the American public.

Back in the 1940's and 1950's, Esther Williams hit the big screen in a string of bathing suit spectaculars, glamorizing what was known as "water ballet", a staple at worlds fairs and expositions earlier in the century.

In Seattle, the Aqua Theater on Greenlake drew sellout crowds through the 50's and into the 60's when the "Aqua Follies" splashed down for summertime water shows.

Competitive synchro was added to the Olympics in 1984.  Seattleites Tracie Ruiz and Candy Costie won the first gold medal awarded in the sport.  Ruiz also picked up a solo gold and a silver in the next games.

Big flippers to fill for Penner and Abel -- and they know it.

"I'm there. I get to do it too…represent Seattle. I love Seattle.  It's my home," says Jillian.

"I just want a good swim, but it would be nice to take home a medal.  It would be really nice," says Brooke.

Jillian says she plans on going to college after the Olympics. She has her eye on Ohio State, where they have a strong synchro program.

Brooke, the Californian, has a sister who lives here, a brother who goes to college here and a mom who coaches here.  She says it's fine with her.  She's delighted if we want to adopt her as one of our own on the road to Beijing.