Eight members of the Los Angeles-based U.S. artistic swimming national team featured in a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl LVII pregame show on Sunday.
Two-time Olympian Anita Alvarez, plus national teamers Claudia Coletti, Jaime Czarkowski, Elizabeth Davidson, Keana Hunter, Jacklyn Luu, Daniella Ramirez and Natalia Vega performed in the ad for the hair care products brand TRESemmé, which recently announced a two-year partnership with USA Artistic Swimming through the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The commercial was filmed in early November in Los Angeles and choreographed by Parris Goebel, who also choreographed the halftime show headlined by Rihanna.
Alvarez made national headlines last June when she fainted in the pool at the end of her free solo final routine at the world championships in Budapest.
Two people dove in to help, including U.S. head coach Andrea Fuentes, a retired Spanish Olympic artistic swimmer. Fuentes rescued Alvarez from the bottom of the pool.
In June 2021, Alvarez briefly lost consciousness at the end of a routine at an Olympic qualification event, leading Fuentes to dive into the pool, fully clothed, to help.
The TRESemmé commercial begins with an image of a quote from Fuentes -- “The way hair moves in water is so fluid and free ... But this is not something we are able to experience in our competitions.”
The full-length commercial was published on YouTube in January, and the spot aired on TV a few times before the Super Bowl.
Alvarez and Lindi Schroeder placed 13th in the duet at the Tokyo Games, five years after Alvarez and Mariya Koroleva took ninth in Rio. Solo artistic swimming is not on the Olympic program.
Also in 2022, Coletti, Czarkowski, Davidson, Hunter, Ramirez and Vega were part of the team that posted the U.S.’ best combined results at the world championships since 2007, the last year it qualified for the Olympic team event.
The Americans were sixth in the technical routine, ninth in the free routine and fifth in the highlight (acrobatic) routine, the three events that will make up the 2024 Paris Games competition.
The U.S. still must qualify for the 10-nation 2024 Olympic team event. It failed to reach the last three Olympics. It missed the Tokyo Games by one spot and .2108 of a point in a last-chance qualifier.
The winner of November’s Pan American Games in Chile qualifies for the Olympics. The U.S. is expected to contend with Canada and Mexico for that spot.
If the U.S. does not win Pan Ams, its last shot to qualify will be the February 2024 World Championships. The top five nations among those not already qualified via continental championships will round out the 10-nation Olympic field.
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