Page 20 - Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine Spring 2023 - Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

NEWS FROM JOHNS HOPKINS NURSING ALL

TOGETHER

NOW!

In the pool or in any health care setting,

you can count on Coral Alonso Garcia

C oral Alonso Garcia was born out of sync. not great.” But a scholarship is a scholarship, so she

jumped at the opportunity.
There’s a last time for everything.
Advised by a physician that exercise would be good Lindenwood wasn’t much on training facilities (a
for her premature baby’s development, Garcia’s mom pool at a local high school). “We went to Ohio State
found a nearby swimming pool, and it wasn’t long and they had this huge, amazing pool, personal
before the child made a splash: “I was really pretty coaches for all the swimmers.” But what it lacked
good,” Garcia remembers of what would be a 10-year in amenities, Lindenwood more than made up for
18 competitive swimming journey, “but I got bored, just in its United Nations recruiting efforts like the one
swimming laps and stuff. … I was just a little girl.” that netted Garcia. “There were Russian swimmers,
there were Olympic medalists from Spain …” And
One day, Garcia and her mom happened to be there was a universal language: Trust, built on
watching the Summer Olympics on TV and—what eight-hour days together in the water, in the gym, in
was that? “I thought, ‘Oh, that looks cool! They’re kind ballet or gymnastics training. “It can take a whole
of doing gymnastics … and they’re swimming … year to perfect one three-minute routine”—until the
and at the same time there’s music!’ ” It was teammates know it upside-down, sideways, with
synchronized swimming. “My mom was, like, ‘OK, music or counting it out by hand.
let’s find you a place.’ ”
“They have these speaker systems so you can hear
“More than anything, underwater,” Garcia says. “They’re very expensive,
so usually only at big international events. And
it’s remembering why we “So I’m looking frantically at my teammates [Garcia
sometimes they stop working.” The judges don’t care.
JOHNS HOPKINS NURSING SPRING 2023 It was a perfect fit. Garcia again excelled, eventually Garcia’s Lindenwood Lady Lions would beat Ohio
are here.”
mimics pounding a hand into her opposite palm]:
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8!”

State, and Stanford University, and … anybody in their
joining Team Mexico and, spotted at an international
path to four straight national championships and, for
tournament, was offered a scholarship to join
her, a lesson in leadership that she has brought to
Lindenwood University in Missouri. “I had no idea
nursing as a master’s student at Johns Hopkins. “More
where Missouri was. It’s not one of the places you hear
about in Mexico.” In fact, as she learned later, Garcia
than anything, it’s remembering why we are here. The
had become the first Mexican synchronized swimmer
most important thing I learned while training eight
ever recruited to the United States, and the first in
hours a day was, ‘OK, we’re tired. But we are already
her family to make the journey. Her English was “OK,
here. So we need to do the job well.’ ” Same with any