t has been over two years since Miho Takeda retired from synchronized swimming. Now that she is released from the extreme pressures of competition, how does she feel about the water? “I’ve been in the water since I was a child, so since I’ve retired, I’ve really noticed how heavy gravity pulls on you when I’m out of the water. It’s taken my body some time to get used to. “And every time I get into the pool, it’s like my tiredness just melts away.” Simply floating in water can be a great feeling. Your muscles naturally relax with that unique feeling of weightlessness that you experience only in water. Retirement seems to have reawakened in Takeda an awareness of the charm of being in the water. “Whenever I’m away from the water for a long time, I start craving to get back in.” When she’s away from the water too long, she begins to feel out of sorts because her body misses the water. “And then when I slip back into the water, I feel like I’ve been set free again.” For Takeda, water is her eternal companion she cannot separate from. “When I get into the water, I feel like I’m at home again. I feel more like myself there than anywhere else. I always want it to be part of my life”. want others to discover how great swimming is. Before they can do that, though, there has to be some sort of connection with the water,” says Takeda. But the fact is that people are reluctant to get in. “I suppose the first issue is the fear of showing their skin in public. The second issue is actually getting into the water. My hope is to overcome those barriers.” Takeda says that when on a tour overseas once, she happened to find some time to go to the pool at the hotel and was astonished by what she saw. What surprised her was all the older women wearing bikinis. “They were dressed up in their fancy bikinis, very fashionable, women who hadn’t forgotten what it was like to be young.”For her, wearing a beautiful swimsuit during her days as a synchronized swimmer provided her a sense of self-confidence. “A swimsuit can play a vital role in getting people into the pool as well. If you have a swimsuit that you really like, you’ll feel that urge to put it on and try it out at pool.” Takeda believes the theory that all living things came from the water and that water is linked to a primordial memory encoded in every person’s DNA. She thinks this is probably why people relax so easily when they are in the water. Takeda knows the delights that water can bring. She hopes to be an evangelist for swimming, and spread the word far and wide about the charms that water has to offer.