Editor's note: this is part of a series of features being published over the next few weeks on the various sports which make up the 2007 Canada Winter Games, and the athletes who will be representing the Yukon in them.

The grace of synchronized swimming.

Above the water, the poise and sharp features of pointed fingers and toes. Smiling faces radiate confidence and grace classical ballet on half-screen.

Below the water, legs and arms churn, non-stop, like an eggbeater gone wild in the pool, screaming for more oxygen through the two and a half minutes of routine.

Above the water, the quaint smile and quiet elegance belying the burning muscles below.

Whitehorse synchro coach Aura-lea Harper knows the physical demands, herself a former synchronized swimmer of 12 years who started at the age of 10 and represented the Yukon in the last two Canada Winter Games.

Harper's group of eight swimmers, the Northern Novas, are in the water five days a week, 10 hours in all, in addition to a couple of slots for dry-land training.

'It is a very hard sport,' says Harper as she watches the Novas warm up on the pool deck for a half-hour before they take to the water. 'I think I have always liked the difficulty, I guess.

'And I like dancing. It's dancing in water, basically.'

Synchro swimmers who leave the sport and come back after an extended period face a lot of conditioning in their return, says the 24-year-old Harper, who's been coaching now for four years.

'That's why we don't compete until after Christmas because they have to condition after the summer break. It is too much for them.'

Two of the eight swimmers will represent the territory as a duet later this month during week-one of the Games.

Chrissy Spinks, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Porter Creek Secondary School, and Kelsey Metropolit, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Vanier Catholic Secondary, have put their passion into a cops-and-robbers routine developed by coach Harper with their input.

After a dry run of the routine on the pool deck, routine set to a mixture of tunes from the movie Snatch, Spinks and Metropolit take up their opening pose on the deck at the deep end.

Rules stipulate that no more than 10 seconds of the mandatory performance time of two minutes and forty seconds for duets can be used for opening choreography on deck. It's a water sport.

The artistic impression begins on the first note out of the boom box up on top and the underwater speaker below.

So effortless it looks, gliding along the surface, with no visible signs of propulsion. As though being pulled along by a rope underwater, Metropolit and Spinks fulfill the requirement of using the entire length of the pool and back as they perform their good-guy, bad-guy number.

The duet rests after their first swim of the practice, while the younger six Novas go through their team performance. And then its back on deck for the duet and into the water for another two minutes and forty seconds, exhaustively churning their legs below while a smile and crisp arm movements convey serenity and control.

In a flash and a splash, its over and under, nothing above water but the straight legs and pointy toes, with arms flailing beneath to maintain buoyancy.

Over the course of the two-and-a-half hour practice, the Canada Games swimmers will run through their routine seven times.

'My goal is to make it look easy,' says Spinks in an interview at pool-side. 'Like you are not even trying, but I try my best.'

A veteran synchro swimmer of six years, Spinks expects teams like P.E.I to be closer to their level of competition because it too has a small population base to draw from.

'I am nervous,' she admits. 'But I am excited.'

Metropolit began synchronized swimming three years ago, though she swam competitively on the lane team for several years.

'I took a while to just figure out the basics,' says the Metropolit. 'But once I figured out how to do it, it was amazing.'

Performing, she says, is like having your own pool, it's like different worlds.

The sport of synchronized swimming dates back to 1891, though not until the early 1900s in Canada. The first Canadian provincial competitions were held in 1924, and the sport has been part of the Canada Games since the events' inception in the 1967 Centennial year.

For the Games, each territorial and provincial team consists of a maximum nine swimmers for the team event. From the nine swimmers, each team can designate two teams for the duet competition and two swimmers for the singles competition.

Catherine Gosselin-Despres, spokeswoman for the Games on behalf of Synchronized Swimming Canada, said the Ontario and Quebec teams will likely be competing for the gold and silver. Alberta and B.C. are the likely contenders for bronze, she said.

Gosselin-Depres points out in an interview this week the Quebec team has four veterans from the national 13-to-15 synchro team, and Ontario has two.

Traditionally, she says, the two most populated provinces in Canada provide the top teams for the synchronized swimming competition at the Games.

Swimmers can be up to 18 years old but Gosselin-Depres notes that some of the more advanced provinces have very well organized programs to get swimmers in the pool early in life. The average age for these Games, she expects, will be around 15.

'But at the end of the day, synchronized swimming is still a late maturing sport, because the best in the world are all over 25.'

Swimmers on the national team, for instance, can hold their breath underwater for about 90 seconds while performing.

Gosselin-Depres says Jessica Chase, a Canadian bronze medalist at the 2000 Olympics in Sidney, Australia is expected to be here for the synchronized finals, and may be involved with the medal presentations.

The Whitehorse coach says her swimmers have no false expectations of placing in the top three. As it is with most of the Canada Games sports, the Yukon doesn't have the population base to support large scale involvement and consequently a large number of competitors to choose from.

Alberta, she figures, probably had 100 swimmers to try out for the nine spots on its provincial team.

But Harper doesn't sell her girls short. No.

Like all synchronized swimmers for the Canada Games, they've met the technical requirements, they've done their work.

'I do believe they could do very well,' Harper says. 'They could beat a lot of teams.'

And as it was this week, as the duet and Harper prepared for this weekend's invitational meet in Calgary, there was poise and pointed toes.

Harper admits, however, that even with two Canada Games under her belt, she's nervous.

They're her swimmers. And she's largely responsible for developing the routine, though with input from Metropolit and Spinks.

She says she asked to be invited to the Calgary meet to give the duet a taste of the environment that surrounds a high-calibre meet.

'We will be seeing Team Alberta, Team Saskatchewan and Team B.C. because they have asked to be invited as well,' Harper says. 'I am trying to calm the girls' nerves a bit and hopefully it will calm mine too.'