Australia’s best performed synchronised swimmers, Eloise Amberger and Sarah Bombell will lead the team of nine athletes to compete at the London Olympic Games in July.

Amberger and Bombell, both from Queensland, will compete in the duet and team event in London. They won a bronze medal as a duo at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and were members of the Team which finished seventh in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“Sarah and I are very excited and hope to perform well for Australia in the duet,” Amberger said. “We have two new routines since Delhi which are more dynamic and more impressive and we hope the judges like them.”

The 25-year-old, who also studies Forensic Science at university, is delighted with the makeup of the team.

“This is a different team, a lot younger, but we are working well together,” Amberger said. “We have changed our training routines and it will turn out for the best. We have choreographed our routines for London and it’s going well.”

The other seven members of the team range in age and experience, from 16-year-old school student Olga Burtaev to 27-year-old Beijing Olympian Tarren Otte.

The lure of competing in the London Olympic Games was just too much for Otte, who announced her retirement after narrowly missing a medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. The Victorian athlete decided that she did not want to miss out on London and today secured her place on the team.

“I did retire after Delhi and had a year off but I have lived in the sport for so long and I love all the girls so I thought I can do one more,” Otte said. “We finished seventh in Beijing and we would love to finish seventh or better in London. We have a very talented squad but there is a lot of hard work involved.”

Also in the team are Otte’s Beijing teammates Tamika Domrow and Samantha Reid. Making their Olympic debut will be Burtaev, Jenny-Lyn Anderson, Bianca Hammett and Francesca Owen.

Synchronised swimming will take place at the Aquatics Centre in Olympic Park. The duet is from 5 – 7 August and the team event is from 9 – 10 August.

Athletes selected to the synchronised swimming section of the 2012 Australian Olympic Team:

Eloise Amberger (25) - Duet and Team
Sarah Bombell (28) - Duet and Team
Jenny-Lyn Anderson (19) - Team
Olga Burtaev (16) - Team
Tamika Domrow (22) - Team
Bianca Hammett (21) - Team
Tarren Otte (27) - Team
Francesca Owen (23) - Team
Samantha Reid (25) - Team

Alice Wheeler
AOC