Full coverage: 2016 Rio Olympics

Continuing our series profiling Olympic hopefuls from across Latin America, we look at two Brazilian swimmers who will be competing together. Duda Micucci and Luisa Borges represent their country in synchronized swimming.

Is it a sport or is it a dance? For Duda and Luisa, Brazil's star synchronized swimmers, that question was settled long ago. It's both.

"Synchronized swimming is a collection of millions of things, you have to know how to swim well; you have to have endurance, and be strong," said Brazilian Synchronized Swimmer Luisa Borges.

"Above the water it is like a theatre, we are always smiling, always beautiful. Below the water it's tough, sometimes we end up even bumping into each other," said Brazilian Synchronized Swimmer Duda Micucci.

The two will be competing in the duet discipline at the Olympics.

After seven years training together, their harmony, their understanding of one another is near perfect.

"We look at each other a lot inside the pool, and we know exactly what the other will do. For example, I may sense that she will pause a little. I see her out of the corner of my eye, and I will, almost instinctively, pause too," said Luisa Borges.

"They have an affinity in and out of the water, because they are friends. In the water you can see this affinity because they are so synchronized," said Coach Maura Xavier.

Their friendship continues in their home city of Rio.

But the reality is downtime is rare.

They train at least thirty hours, every week.

One question they say they are often asked is: don't they get tired of hearing that same song over and over again

"At first we cannot get the music out of our minds, and we do not want to hear it! But the repetition of exactly the same movement, is important in order to perfect it," said Luisa Borges.

Despite being a country famed for its aquatic sports, and its dance, Brazil has never reached an Olympic final in this discipline.

Duda and Luisa intend to change that.