Bill May

Bill May (born January 17, 1979, Syracuse, New York, U.S.) is an artistic swimmer who specializes in mixed duet performances. He has won numerous national and international competitions in spite of being excluded for much of his career from events in which men were not allowed to compete.

Artistic swimming was known as synchronized swimming prior to 2017, when the sport’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), now called World Aquatics, renamed it to better illustrate what the sport is about.

Early life

May is one of three children born to Robert and Sharon May. He was raised in Syracuse, where he participated in gymnastics and swimming before taking an interest in synchronized swimming at the age of 10. After being given the option of sitting and waiting while his little sister took a synchronized swimming class or joining the class, he took his mother’s suggestion and joined the class.

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For the next five years, he trained, first with the Syracuse Synchro Cats and then with the Oswego Lakettes after the Synchro Cats’ coach moved away. His parents participated in a carpool, driving May and other former Synchro Cats an hour each way to Oswego for practices. Frustrated with travel time and lack of available pool time and wanting to improve and compete with the best, May called Chris Carver, the head synchro coach of the Aquamaids in Santa Clara, California, as well as the coach of the U.S. National Team.

In 1995 Carver invited May, then 16 years old, to spend a week in Santa Clara, during which time they wrote a duet routine together. May was so happy to be in a place where the sport was taken seriously and training was at such a high level that he asked Carver if he could stay and train there. She said yes, and with his parents’ permission, May stayed with host families while training and finishing high school.

Career

As a member of the Santa Clara Aquamaids, May became the first male to compete in the Jantzen National Synchronized Swimming Championships, in 1997. He placed 10th in solo freestyle and sixth in mixed duet, along with Aquamaid Stacey Scott. That same year, he and Scott took first in the mixed duet at the Swiss Open.

In 1998 Carver paired May with Kristina Lum. The two won the mixed duet event at the U.S. National Championships and took silver at the 1998 Goodwill Games, making history as the first-ever mixed duet pair to compete at a major international competition. May was also named the 1998 USA Synchro Athlete of the Year. The next year, he took first in the mixed duet event at the French Open, the Swiss Open, and the U.S. National Championships and was again named USA Synchro Athlete of the Year.

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Though May was unable to compete in the FINA World Championships or the Olympics because they excluded men from synchronized swimming events, he continued to rack up plenty of wins in other competitions. In 2000 May won the solo, duet, team, and figures competitions (known as synchronized swimming’s Grand Slam) at the Jantzen National Championships. Continuing his streak at the U.S. National Championships, he took first in mixed duet in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. He won first in mixed duet at the Swiss Open in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003; the Rome Open in 2000 and 2002; and the German Open in 2002.

Retirement

After watching his teammates from the stands at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, May realized that he would not be able to move forward competing in synchronized swimming and decided to retire. He was offered a role in Cirque du Soleil’s underwater production O. He accepted the offer and moved to Las Vegas, where he began performing two shows a night, five days a week.

Career return

In November 2014 FINA finally voted in favor of including two mixed-gender events in world championships: mixed duet technical and mixed duet free. May worked with his former coach Carver and retired former duet partner Lum, as well as Christina Jones, another Aquamaid alum who had retired. They set up training schedules to prepare for the 2015 FINA World Championships, which began in July. May and Jones won the gold for their technical routine, and May and Lum took the silver for their free routine.

Lum and Jones both returned to retirement after the 2015 championships, so May recruited Kanako Kitao Spendlove, who had won a silver medal in the synchro team competition at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, to be his new partner. They won two bronze medals at the 2017 FINA World Championships, one in the mixed duet free event and the other in the mixed duet technical event.

In 2019 May partnered with Natalia Vega, another Aquamaid alum. Together they placed first in the mixed duet technical event at the USA World Series, second in the mixed duet technical event at the Spain World Series, and fourth in the mixed duet free and technical events at the World Championships.

At the 2023 Pan American Games, May competed on the U.S. team; he and his teammates won the silver medal. In February 2024 he and the team finished third in the mixed team artistic swimming event at the World Aquatics Championships (formerly known as the FINA World Championships).

In 2022 the International Olympic Committee gave its approval for men to compete in the artistic swimming team competition, giving May the opportunity he had been lobbying for—the chance to compete and fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming an Olympic medalist. May and the other 11 members of the U.S. national team qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympic games based on their performance in the 2024 World Aquatics Championships. However, he did not make the cut for Team USA’s slimmer roster (comprising eight team members, plus one alternate) for the Paris games, dashing his hopes of winning a medal in the Olympics.