Russian synchronized swimming starlet Varvara Subbotina showed off her remarkable skills as the four-time world champion balanced water bottles in various poses while floating in the pool.
US Olympic swimming queen Katie Ledecky was the toast of social media last week when she shared a video of herself swimming a full length of the pool while balancing a glass of chocolate milk on her head, but Russia’s Subbotina proved she’s just as composed in the water.
The 19-year-old star – who was hoping to make her Olympic debut this summer in Tokyo before the Games were cancelled – shared a video of herself balancing bottles on various parts of her anatomy while floating across the surface of the pool.
The clip starts with Subbotina balancing a bottle on her head while she circles round, remaining perfectly poised.
She then adds a second bottle, placing one of her shoulder and the other on top of her head, gently gliding along face forwards and keeping one foot pointed out of the water.
For her next trick, Subbotina extends her right leg ram-rod straight into the air as a bottle teeters on the sole of her foot and she moves along backwards, before the bottle tips off at the end of the clip.
“Having as much fun as we can, tomorrow we’re already heading home,” Subbotina captioned the video from Russia’s ‘Krugloe Ozero’ (Round Lake) training base, and which is accompanied by a Russian dance track with lyrics which translate as “I can do this.”
“Balance is amazing,” wrote one Subbotina fan in the replies, while others praised her poise and flexibility as “fantastic” and added clapping and flame emojis.
In an interview with RT Sport earlier this year, Subbotina spoke of her upset after the Olympics in Tokyo were pushed back to next year, but said the team had done their best during the pandemic and lockdown to stay in shape.
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“Everything’s become so complicated because of the pandemic. We’re now trying to get in competitive shape after the long break. We’ve been training for several days trying to remember what synchronized swimming is all about,“ she said.
“We tried to stay in shape with home workouts, but when we resumed training we realized that it wasn’t enough. Training in a gym can’t compare to training in a swimming pool. On the first day we jumped into the water, we were thinking, ‘Oh my god, how to swim and not sink to the bottom.’”
Subbotina is a self-confessed social media addict, admitting to RT Sport that she can spend hours each day on Instagram – and that her revealing pictures can sometimes land her in trouble with her coaches.
“In 2018 we had an agreement with (my coach) Tatiana Danchenko that I’ll make Instagram posts only after showing good results at competitions,” said the star of the duet and team routine events.
“Because I’m a huge fan of Instagram, I spend a lot of time on social networking platforms. She told me that I got distracted from training, she didn’t want me to waste energy on Instagram posts.
“I love sharing pictures from vacations and sometimes these photos are a bit revealing.
“So my coach messages me saying that I should be more modest. She can even ask me to delete some posts. Sometimes I even send her my pictures for approval,” Subbotina added.
