INTERNATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS: Chief Referee FINA Masters World Championships (2004, 2012, 2015); Chief Recorder 2019 FINA Masters World Championship; Official at every FINA Masters World Championships since 2004; Nearly 50 years of service to synchronized swimming on local, national, and international levels; ASUA/UANA Executive Board Member (1995-1999); UANA TSSC Secretary (1999–2003) and Chairman (2003-2019); USOC Board of Directors (1988-1992); U.S. Team Manager at 1982 World Championships and 1983 Pan American Games.
Barbara McNamee has been extremely active in international Masters Artistic Swimming. She has served as an official at every FINA Masters World Championships since 2004, including three times as Chief Referee and once as Chief Recorder. She has served as the rules liaison for many years and was on the committee that devised the Masters technical elements and created videos of the skills to distribute worldwide. While serving on the UANA (Union Americana de Natacion) Technical Committee, she was instrumental in getting synchronized swimming included in the biennial Pan American Masters Games beginning in 2013.
Her history with synchro goes quite far back. She first became intrigued by synchro at the 1955 Pan American Games in Mexico City. As a 12-year-old Naval officer’s daughter, she was competing for Panama in speed swimming. She heard the synchro music, came to watch, and became hooked. She has now served for nearly 50 years with synchro in administrative duties for national and local associations. She has served as a board member for United States Synchronized Swimming (USSS), the AAU, and the USOC.
McNamee brought her financial expertise to synchro serving as treasurer of USSS from 1976 to 1984. She has worked tirelessly to upgrade and implement judges’ evaluation programs in the Americas. She worked on a committee to revise the U.S. judges’ education materials. She is a national judge, an internationally rated judge, and was the U.S. judge for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
McNamee has been involved with Masters Artistic Swimming since its inception in the United States. She competed in all the early U.S. Masters National synchro championships, beginning with the first test meet in 1975 and continuing until 1982, when she retired as a Masters swimmer after winning all three events she entered. In 1983, McNamee won the Mae McEwan Award. This U.S. award is given annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to and best exemplifies the spirit of Masters synchro. At the time, she said that she hoped to continue to attend all Masters meets, even if she did not have swimmers entered, because the “Masters program has given me a lot.”
As a coach for over twenty years, she developed athletes from novice to national team levels. As a member of the national team staff, she served as team leader for the 1982 World Championships and the 1983 Pan American Games. In 1988, she was elected president of USSS and served until 1992, whereupon she was elected USSS vice president Olympic International from 1992-1997. In 1996, she was the assistant competition manager for synchro at the Olympic Games in Atlanta.
To this day, McNamee has continued attending nearly all of the U.S. Masters meets as a judge, official, or coach and sometimes in all three capacities. She has been one of the most tireless supporters of the Masters program in the U.S. and served for many years on the Masters Committee. She was the competition director for synchronized swimming at the 2016 USA Masters Games (an all-sports competition styled after the Olympics).