Are there any synchro teams that have a mix of guys and girls in them?

[smelltheice]

All the synchro teams I have ever seen have only women in them and I was wondering if this is a rule or just that there are no guys who do synchro skating

[SynchroSk8r114]

Many men also do synchro, it's just not nearly as common. As far as I know, there are no rules against men skating on synchro teams; however, I just wrapped up my second year on my university's synchro team and we were not allowed to have any males per university rules since our team was considered a club sport strictly for women (Women's Synchronized Skating Team). We did have several male inquires abut joining our team, so I wouldn't be surprised if down the road, that rule changes within my university.

Some world teams that feature men are:
- Finland's Team Unique (2 men skaters)
- Germany's Team Berlin 1 (3 men skaters)
- Tartarstan's Team Russian 2 (1 male skater)
- Japan's Jingu Ice Messengers (4 male skaters)
- Les Zoulous's Team France (2 male skaters)
- Sweet Mozart's Team Austria (1 male skater)
- Team Hungary's MJC Team (2 male skaters)

In the US, males skate on teams like:
- California Gold (1 male)
- University of Michigan (1 male)
- Southern Silouhettes (5 males)
- Revolution (1 male)
- La Furia (1 male)
- Chicago Jazz (1 male)
- Maplewood Highsteppers (1 male)
- Boston College (Eagles) (1 male)
- Evolution's adult team (1 male)
- La Furia's adult team (1 male)
- Ice Magic's adult team (3 males)
- Cleveland Edge's adult team (2 males)
- Team Delaware's adult team (1 male)

And, you can't forget...Men N'Sync, the US's first all-male synchro team! You can check 'em out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=699G5tNB2LU.

What I'm curious to see is if synchro ever makes it to the Olympics, if there will be a rule permitting men from skating with ladies. For those of you who don't know, this is already the case in synchronized swimming--just take a look at this: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4503874. I'm really hoping that this changes, not only for swimming, but so that if synchro ever becomes an Olympic sport, the teams that are the best in the world, whether they include males or not, are able to compete at the Games.

[CanAmSk8ter]

There was a Junior or Senior team from Michigan a few years ago that had a guy on it... Crystalettes, maybe? I also think there was a Junior or Senior team from Colorado with a guy on it. It's the same as anything else in figure skating- the issue is getting the guys interested.

[Clarice]

We have two men on our adult team, and one young man on our youth team. I think it's simply a function of demographics - there are far more female figure skaters in general, so it only stands to reason there would be mostly females on synchro teams.

[Thin-Ice]

Our first couple of years our adult synchro team had four guys... enough to put one in each line of a block... it was great fun. They took a good deal of ribbing, but one of them said it was hard to not like a sport where he was supposed to grab the thigh of a woman in a short skirt (during our spiral circle). He skated next to me for several parts of our program.. we also ended up rooming together once... which my husband thought was a riot... but his family thought was TERRIBLE! (I guess they thought I was going to corrupt him!) We just dressed our guys in tan colored pants with shirts to match our dresses (and we wore tan tights). The year we wore pink and purple they were reluctant.. but went along with it.