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Keim needs to shore up finish
Posted: Thursday June 22, 2000 01:10 PM
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- An hour after his diver Jenny Keim finished first in the women's three-meter springboard final at the U.S. Olympic trials on Wednesday, University of Miami coach Randy Ableman was cautiously sizing up Keim's prospects for a medal in Sydney. "At this point I would say she is a finalist," Ableman said. "To win a medal, she's going to have to score better on her last two dives." Keim hit several dives for 9s during the competition, but slipped into the 7 range on a back 2 1/2 pike and an inward 2 1/2 pike after she had built a comfortable lead over runner-up and fellow Olympian Michelle Davison. Keim retired for a year after placing ninth in the three-meter event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Waiting for SorgiWill the real Erica Sorgi please land on her head? Sorgi has been a phenom for so long it's easy to overlook the fact that the 17-year-old is still the youngest diver in the competition here. She won the 1996 outdoor nationals shortly after her 14th birthday and played herself in the movie Jerry Maguire. Though she had no line in the film, Tom Cruise's character did say, "That's Erica Sorgi. You'll see her in the next Olympics" as he watched Sorgi dive. The prediction seemed certain as late as last year when Sorgi won both the three-meter springboard and 10-meter platform spring national titles. Then came the changes. Last August, after her coach, Hongping Li, left Sorgi's club in Mission Viejo, Calif., to accept a job at USC, Sorgi moved to Orlando to train with Jay Lerew. In December she moved back to Southern California, citing homesickness, and quit diving for two months. In March she began training under a third coach, Russ Bertram. She will move again in the fall to attend Stanford. Sorgi placed eighth at the 2000 spring nationals in Minneapolis, where she appeared heavier and less steady. She finished last in the 12-woman springboard final here Wednesday, but could still make the team on platform if she can right herself by Saturday. Such sports-related comebacks run in the family. In '97 Erica's brother, Adam, pitched for the Little League World Series team that was coached by Ed Sorgi, their father. Ed brought Adam into a crucial game against Mexico, only to have Adam surrender a game-tying home run in a contest the Mexicans won. The next year, though, Adam was instrumental in the U.S. victory against Mexico in the Junior League World Series. Erica also helps her 14-year-old sister Tori, who has Down's Syndrome, train for swimming and diving. Davison's family affairNo matter what her family did, Denise Davison couldn't bring herself to take a seat in the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center as her daughter, Michelle, was taking her last dive of the competition. "I tried to pull my mom inside," said Brian Davison, two years and a day younger than his 20-year-old sister. "She couldn't take it. I'm not even sure she saw the last dive." Davison finished with a scant advantage of 844.59 to Michelle Rojohn's 840.03 for the second Olympic berth in women's springboard. She admitted that she looked into the stands as she waited between dives and saw Brian anxiously pacing up and down the aisle behind the last row of seats in the Aquatic Center. "I can never get him to sit still," Michelle said. That won't change in Sydney. Brian said he plans to celebrate Michelle's Olympic appearance by diving off the Great Barrier Reef during his trip to Australia in September. Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Brian Cazeneuve, the magazine's Olympics expert, is in Washington covering the diving trials. He will file reports after each of the finals. Click here to send a question to his Sydney 2000 Mailbag.
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