It wasn’t until her mother took her to a Santa Clara Aquamaids Synchronized Swimming show when she was six that she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

“Synchronized swimming combined the best of every sport that I loved, so I just stuck with it,” Jones said.

More than 12 years later, Jones has never regretted her decision.

“Synchronized swimming has been the best opportunity for me. It opens you up to meet totally different people than you would if you weren’t in synchro,” Jones said. “But more importantly, it teaches you lessons that you can learn no where else. I feel like I’ve learned how to deal with every kind of person, every kind of situation and the biggest amount of stress possible.”

She’ll have to learn to deal with another level of stress come August 2008. In December, Jones was one of the first two swimmers named to the 2008 Olympic Synchronized swimming team. The other was duet partner Andrea Nott.

“Christina is super talented, and she’s an awesome synchronized swimmer,” Nott said. “We kind of challenge each other, and I think it makes us improve really fast.”

With the largest of international competitions looming just under 15 months away, improvement is what the pair will need. Jones isn’t worried about it, though. She and Nott, along with the rest of the synchronized swimming team, have plenty of room and plenty of time to perfect their routine, she said.

“I’m going to take each day and improve on something each day,” Jones said. “I’ve got a while. I’m going to try to be my absolute best that I can be over there.

“I really want to start to swim routines that are way different and out of the box from any of the other competitors in the Olympics,” Jones added. “I really want to do something that will stand out to the audience, that will stand out to the judges and hopefully we can be remembered for.”

And while there are many challenges, none are quite as bad as getting in a cold pool early in the morning, Jones said.

“It’s really hard to get into a cold pool at 6 a.m. When it’s cold out and there’s ice on the deck, it’s not exactly anyone’s idea of fun,” she said. “Once you get in the water, usually it’s okay. So you just have to jump in. You can’t get in slowly. That’s the hardest thing.”

With her teammates to pull her through, though, the mornings aren’t always so bad, she said.

“If I feel like I can’t do it, I can always look over to the teammate next to me, and I just think, okay, if she can do it, I can do it,” Jones said. “I owe it to the team. So if I can’t force myself to do it for myself then I do it for them.”