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Megumi Field had a pretty incredible last summer before college.

The 18-year-old Wilmington, Delaware native visited Paris, met some celebrities and people from around the world and even went viral on social media.

But the real emotional highlight was winning an Olympic silver medal as part of the U.S. artistic swimming — also called synchronized swimming, or synchro — team, the program’s first podium since 2004.

“We were on the podium and I was looking to my left and my teammate was crying,” Field remembered. “I was like, ‘Okay, well I have to look [to my right],’ and she was crying, and I was like, ‘Ah, I don’t know where to look. Everyone’s crying. I’m gonna start crying.’”

This fall, Field starts her freshman year at Stanford University, where she’ll have to balance her studies with competing in a storied artistic swimming program, all while keeping half an eye on the 2028 games in Los Angeles.

Staying in a ‘bubble’

The U.S. artistic swimming team last competed in the Olympics in 2008. The team clinched Olympic qualification through a third place finish during its free routine at February’s World Aquatics Championships in Doha.

Field, one of two Delawareans who competed in the games, began her artistic swimming journey at age 5, inspired by her mother’s love of the sport and her affection for the water. She made her first national team at 10, and then shortly after moved to Los Angeles with her mom to get more opportunities and better coaching.

Before going into the water, the team held hands together in a circle, then put their hands in the middle and chanted in unison, “Hold in sharp and clean and crisp, and long and tight. Commit. Convective patterns. Three, two, one, team.”

“It’s so long but it just summarizes everything … our focus points have been for the last few months,” Field said.

Field elaborated that the team’s focus was less on the results — that tended to lead to sporadic, chaotic efforts that scored worse scores — and more on staying with themselves, supporting each other and fully appreciating their Olympics experience. The team tried to stay in a “bubble” that tuned out how their competitors were doing and all the other potential distractions. As the team got closer to the pool, the bubble got smaller until it just felt like they were back at practice at the pools on UCLA’s campus.

This led to a collective calm as the team competed in arguably one of the most challenging events in the entire Olympic Games. “It sounds weird to be calm when you’re doing something strenuous,” Field admitted. “But when there’s eight other people, you have to synchronize and match everything. When it’s calm you can feel all your energy going in the correct direction.”

After the three-night showdown of technical, free and artistic routines, the team’s months of hard work ultimately paid off with a spot on the podium, between gold winners China and bronze medalists Spain. Field remembers that the magnitude of the moment kicked in for the team when they were backstage waiting to step on the podium, hearing the echoes of applause from American supporters and the sight of red, white and blue flags waving throughout the stadium.

“It was just so crazy,” Field recalls. “There were so many U.S supporters and little girls from the U.S. who came out to support. Every time we went out into that arena, you could see the flags, you could hear all the chanting of ‘USA,’ and it was great.”

She followed up the team medal with 10th in the duet competition with teammate and fellow silver medalist Jaime Czarkowski.

“Getting chosen for the duet is another great honor in itself because it is only two of you,” Field said. “I think we as a team and as a duet, we knew we weren’t going to focus so much on duet just because team was like, a thousand percent the priority. So I was just glad and excited that we were able to go out there and have another chance to compete in that venue.”

The Olympics away from the pool

Outside of competing, Field’s Olympics experience was the whirlwind of excitement and emotions you’d expect from one of the world’s biggest sporting celebrations. Her team was right next to the U.S. men’s basketball team during the opening ceremony boat ride on the Seine. She also met gold-medal gymnasts Simone Biles and Suni Lee, as well as nine-time gold medalist Katie Ledecky. Field even got to meet celebrities like Flavor Flav and Snoop Dogg, in the two rappers’ roles as Olympic fans and ambassadors. She didn’t see Ariana Grande around, which she was sad about.

Like many other athletes in the Olympic Village, Field used pin swapping as a way to meet other athletes from the U.S. and everywhere else. She recalled giving the artistic swim team’s unique pin to athletes from Spain and Puerto Rico, and her team trading with Steph Curry by tossing theirs on the different levels of the opening ceremony boat.

Having been to Paris before to compete about four times already, Field was able to go out and explore the city for the first time ever in the three days after the games. She finally saw the places that had been building up on her Parisian bucket list — the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower with the Olympic rings sparkling at night — and got to treat herself to a crookie, the cookie-croissant hybrid that had been going viral on the internet.

The Olympics provided its own list of viral moments: The Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikeç’s casual performance, Penn State grad Stephen Nedoroscik’s clutch pommel horse routine, Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina’s unbelievable pose. Field’s team got swept in their own viral moment when viewers were in awe of their underwater moonwalking during their technical routine, performing to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.”

“Everyone was going so crazy about the moonwalk, but we were like, ‘I don’t know, that didn’t feel like the critical spark for us,” Field said, recalling the full day of media questions about the moonwalk after winning silver. “I mean, it was great that it went viral, but we feel like we love other parts of our routine more than that one.”

Balancing studies and competition at Stanford

Next for Field is her dream school, Stanford University, known for its artistic swimming program. Achieving both her goal of attending Stanford and competing in the Olympics was a dream come true for her.

The Stanford artistic swimming team has won nine collegiate national championships, most recently in 2021. Three of the four freshmen — including Field — were on the Olympics team, alongside some of the rising sophomores. The entire squad has some national team experience, promising a formidable lineup for Field to compete with in the upcoming season.

“We have a pretty stacked team,” she said.

Transitioning to college will be a major shift for Field. While she trained eight to 10 hours a day with the national team, college training is significantly lighter, capped at 20 hours per week. However, with her early 4:30 a.m. morning routines and evening online schooling starting at 5 p.m., she feels well prepared and confident in her ability to adapt and succeed.

As she steps onto Stanford’s campus, she says she’s already planning her path toward a second Olympics.

“I definitely want to go for it in L.A. Right now my plan is to go to college for two years and then take a two-year gap year, just so that I have one year before the Olympics to get back into it,” she said. “That’s the plan right now, not exactly sure what will happen. But yeah, I really want to get back there.”

For many Olympians, tattooing the Olympic rings has become a cherished tradition or rite of passage. Field is considering joining the trend, maybe putting it on her ankle like one of her coaches, but it may not be happening too soon.

“I brought it up to my mom last night and she was like ‘absolutely not,’” she said. “So I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll just get it somewhere you can’t see.’”

Field and her teammates are also considering matching tattoos more unique to their specific Olympics experience, reflecting the team spirit and the close-knit bond they’ve developed as a group.

“We want to do something with bubbles, we don’t know what exactly,” she said.