Bert Hubbard

Hubbard started synchronized swimming shortly after it was introduced in his birth town Detroit in 1946 by swimmers from Chicago.

In 1949 he won the first Men's AAU Synchronised Swimming competition in the duet St.Louis Blues March with Lee Embrey.

[2] With the introduction of the International Academy of Aquatic Art (IAAA) in 1955 men were welcomed in synchronized swimming events, and Hubbard created and performed as aquatic artist until 2009 in various compositions, especially solos, at many IAAA festivals throughout North America.

In 1960 he choreographed two mixed trios Othello after Verdi's Otello and A Medieval Morality that were the first to receive top honors from IAAA in that category.

[3] At that festival he presented the first male solo A World of Silence to be awarded First Class Honors from the IAAA.

Bert Hubbard (left), Joan Hinderstein (middle) and Richard Proctor (right) in 1960 in Bert Hubbard’s own choreography “Othello” after Giuseppe Verdi’s opera
Bert Hubbard at the IAAA festival 1996 in Orlando, Florida (USA) in his swim costume to his own choreography Juxtaposed