USA Olympic Trials-Synchronized Diving

USA Olympic Diving Trials- Federal Way, Washington- June 17, 18, 19

USA Diving’s tagline is Guts.Grace.Glory. So far we’ve seen a lot of the guts and grace; huge & hairy dives done with incredible style and elegance. But the glory will not come until later, and only for a very select few. Of the 100 plus men and women diving this week, only 11 divers (and possibly less) will be chosen to go to London.

Day One- Our first session was synchronized preliminaries. The men did 10 meter platform, the women 3 meter springboard. For non-diving folks, that means they competed as two person teams, each pair of divers doing the same dive. The men did 6 different dives, the women did five. They were judged on each individual diver’s execution of the dive as well as how perfect their synchronization was. With all the flipping and twisting going on, they needed eleven judges, with each set of judges having a different thing to score!

At one point we thought it would be fun to count the number of flips and twists in one session, but quickly gave up on that idea!  We do know that through the four rounds of dives we saw almost 400 dives!

Session two was the semi-finals of the morning session, with top divers advancing and doing another full round of dives. At the end, cuts were made and the top eight advance to the finals. One men’s pair and one women’s pair will be chosen. We won’t see the finals, but will be following closely online. The men’s team is probably already decided as Boudia and McCrory  have a substantial lead and were the favorites to win.

While fun to watch, the competition lacked a little excitement. Partially because it was the early rounds, so no Olympic spot was at stake yet. And it seems synchro doesn’t have the appeal of the individual diving. Most of the spectators, of which there weren’t a lot, were family members. I don’t understand why they don’t bring in kids from the elementary and middle schools on comp tickets. Give each group a diver to cheer for and fire up the enthusiasm. And who knows, there may be a potential Olympic diver in the group. Don’t know why they never ask me for my advice!

Day Two- This was also a synchronized prelim session, followed by the semi-finals. This time the men did 3 meter springboard and the women did 10 meter tower. Same format as yesterday. However, since our women had not qualified the US a spot in the Olympics, their 10 meter platform was for exhibition only. Their finals will also be later in the week.

A couple of initial observations:

• I found it interesting that we had judges from other countries judging the US Olympic Trials. There were judges from Canada, Hungary, Mexico and Czech Republic.
• The women’s bathroom can be a great source of information. I learned that those judges will be at the Olympics and USA Diving wanted them to become familiar with our divers before the Olympics.
• How smart for these athletes to choose a sport where they can sit in a hot tub in between competing times! How cool is that!
• The coaches are relegated to a “play pen.” Not sure what it’s really called, but they have a roped off area and they’re not allowed to go anywhere else during the competition. I can think of a few other sports where that might be a good idea!!
• The 10 meter platform is really, really, really high up there!
• These athletes are the cream of the crop in diving; they are Olympians to be. Yet they are humble, well behaved, friendly, unassuming and great sports. I know a quite a few pro athletes who could learn a lesson from these young men and women.

On a personal note, we were joined on day 2 by Laura Hegarty and her two kids. Laura was one of our gymnasts and was a very successful diver in college. It was awesome to spend some time with them.She also was the one who told me months ago that I needed to blog this trip. I told her thanks for the idea, but nobody would read it. She and my “social media coach” Paul Fiarkoski convinced me otherwise. So if you’re enjoying reading this, it’s thanks to Laura and Paul!

After a full week, I can say The Podium has become “home.” We’re starting to get the routine down. Two weeks to go!

In Celebration of Sport!