Their lives were synchronized.
The effervescent twin sisters began synchronized swimming in the early 1990s, budding brilliance in Denver pools. They became two of America’s finest, competing internationally for their country.
Janet and Jennie Culp. Eternal teammates.
And so, on the fateful day, tears splashed poolside.
It was last September, the U.S. Olympic Trials. Janet made the Olympic team. Jennie did not.
“That was the toughest day emotionally I’ve ever had in my whole life,” said their father, Mike Culp. “You’re excited and devastated.”
Janet Culp of Littleton is headed to her first Olympics this week eager to make up for her sister’s absence.
“This is the first time in my life that I’m doing this and Jennie’s not here beside me. My sports psychologist says: ‘Every day we take people in the pool with us. It’s not just yourself, but it’s other people who are on your mind, who supported you.’ And she’s definitely one of those people. . . . That’s one thing that’s motivating for me.”
Culp will emulate her talented twin in the pool, where she is an American “flyer,” the designated swimmer who is thrown into the air. At 5-feet-3, she’s an ideal size for her role.
“If everything’s going perfectly, it’s exhilarating beyond belief,” she said.
This sport, originally called “water ballet,” is a combination of grace and grit, with athletes performing acrobatic artistic routines to music while never touching the bottom of the pool. Smiling is not optional.
Eight nations will compete in Beijing in the team competition, including Russia, the pirouetting powerhouse, winners of the past two golds. The U.S. won the team bronze in 2004, but only one athlete from that team is on the 2008 team, and she was an Athens alternate.
“We have a very young team,” Culp said, “but that adds excitement and youthfulness that other countries don’t have. I think the one thing that’s so great about the American team is we aren’t a cookie-cutter team. We all bring different things. And we don’t look alike. You look at us out of the pool, you wouldn’t believe we match the way that we do. We try to highlight people’s different strengths.”
Culp’s strengths? Being strong enough to withstand the hundreds of choreographed counts, and nimble enough to be propelled toward the Beijing sky.
Team captain Kim Probst knows Culp’s abilities arguably better than anyone.
“I’m usually the one who throws her,” Probst said. “She knows how to use her body really well and is even lighter than she looks.
“She’s got a really good work ethic — and great legs. That may sound funny, but in this sport, aesthetics are a part of it.”
Medaling will be tough. Russia is considered a lock, and Japan, Spain and China are elite while America has slipped.
But for Culp, 26, she is going to the Olympics, a childhood fantasy — make that a lifelong fantasy — that became a reality. Still, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way, not without Jennie. A 2006 shoulder injury derailed Jennie’s path to Beijing. She rehabilitated her shoulder and was one of 12 finalists for the American squad heading into the Olympic Trials, and to that fateful day — when her dream died, and her sister’s dream came true.
“I think bittersweet is the best way to describe it,” Janet Culp said. “But she’s definitely going to Beijing to cheer me on. It’s really hard, obviously, and there are a lot of emotions there, but we’ve always supported each other.”
Said Probst: “When I perform, it’s not as much about me as it is about everybody who got me here. I can’t even imagine how strongly Janet must feel it, as a twin.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
