We Are Tomodachi Spring / Summer 2018

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8Kanako Kitao Spendlove, selected at the age of 20 for Japan’s national team for synchronized swimming (now officially referred to as artistic swimming), overcame harsh practices lasting as long as 10 hours a day to win a silver medal in the team competition at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Having also earned a silver medal the following year at the FINA World Championships in Montreal, she was expected to capture the gold at the next Olympics, but instead she announced her withdrawal from the sport, after three years on the national team.“While it’s true I had earned a medal, I didn’t feel that I had achieved the kind of synchronized swimming I had imagined I would,” she recalls.She wanted to pursue a style all her own. A few weeks after announcing her retirement from competition with that dream in mind, she found out that an audition for a show incorporating synchronized swimming performances would be held in Tokyo. The organizer was Cirque du Soleil, a company with its international headquarters in Montreal that incorporates such diverse elements as street performance and opera into traditional circus shows and performs those shows in countries around the globe.Highly evaluated at her audition for her expressiveness, physical ability, and, most of all, her confidence in taking on new challenges, Spendlove headed to Canada alone to participate in training that spanned dance, music, and Kanako Kitao SpendloveSpendlove was born in 1982, in Kyoto Prefecture. She represented Japan in synchronized swimming while a student at Ritsumeikan University. She won silver medals in the team competition at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and at the FINA World Championships in Montreal in 2005. She has been a member of Cirque du Soleil since 2006.Series: Japanese Individuals Contributing WorldwideSynchronized Swimming Olympic Medalist Performing with Cirque du SoleilSpendlove practicing for an underwater performance on the theme of Swan Lake.