Erin Dobratz

Born October 18, 1982 in Concord, California, to Carl and Judy Dobratz, Erin graduated Concord's Clayton Valley High School in 2000, and swam for Clayton Valley High, likely in freestyle events where she gained endurance, an essential skill required for synchronized swimmers.^[3] She trained in synchronized swimming with the Walnut Creek Aquanuts and was coached throughout High School by Head Aquanuts Coach Gail Pucci and Pamela Edwards. The Aquanuts program was earlier founded by Hall of Fame Coach Gail Emery.^[4] Beginning her participation in synchronized swimming with the Aquanuts by the age of nine, from 1999-2000, she became a member of the U.S. Junior National Team member as a High School upperclassman, training with the team primarily in the summer months. With challenging practice schedules, as a member of the U.S. Junior National team, Dobratz would train up to 10 hours daily, significantly more than her training sessions with the Walnut Creek Aquanuts B-team during the school year.^[4] With her demanding travel schedule, Dobratz often needed to take high school midterms or final exams before her classmates, to prevent them from conflicting from her competitions. Around sixteen in 1998, she captured gold in America's Cup team competition. ^[5] In 1998, she also placed second at the Jr. Nationals in team competition, and at the U.S. Open finished second in team competition while placing third in duet as an individual competitor.^[6][7]

At the end of her High School Junior year at Clayton, she was not selected to participate in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, though at 16, she was the youngest American synchronized swimmer to qualify for the 1999 Olympic trials in Federal, Washington. As a Walnut Creek Aquanut B-swimmer, she trained 3-4 hours daily, usually six days a week. Her Aquanuts Coach, Pamela Edwards noted that her coordination and athletic ability were exceptional for a sixteen-yard old competitor.^[8][4]

She attended Stanford University from 2001-2005, intending to graduate in communications. She competed for the Stanford Cardinal women's synchronized swimming team where she was coached by Heather Pease-Olson, a 1996 Olympic gold medalist in syncronized swimming who as coach led the Stanford women to four NCAA Championships between 2001-2012. Like Dobratz, Pease had formerly competed and trained in synchronized swimming with both the Aquanuts and Stanford where she was an All-American in 1997-98. In fraternal organizations, Dobratz was a member of Pi Beta Phi Sorority.^[9][10][6] Accomplished in her collegiate career, in 2001 she placed third in duet and second in team at the America's Cup.^[7][8]At Collegiate Nationals for the 2002 season, Erin captured a third place in Duet, trio, and team competition. In her early years at Stanford in 2001, she was an Academic All-American, and in collegiate nationals that year captured a second overall place in competition with second places in team, duet and trio. She took time off from Stanford in the 2003-2004 season to prepare for the 2004 Olympics. At a high point in her collegiate career in 2003, she was selected to train with the 2004 Olympic squad.^[7]

She shared a silver medal in the combination routine, and captured a bronze for the Americans in the team event at the 2003 FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.^[11] In that same year, Dobratz added a gold to her career hardware in the group competition at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.^[12]