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U.S. divers face tough road in Sydney
Posted: Sunday June 25, 2000 08:00 PM
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- Mark Ruiz and David Pichler finished first and second in the men's platform competition at the U.S. diving trials on Sunday to complete the American delegation at the Sydney Olympics in September. Ruiz also qualified in the three-meter springboard, along with Troy Dumais. The women's representatives include Jenny Keim and Michelle Davison (springboard), and Laura Wilkinson and Sara Reiling (platform). U.S. divers have traditionally comprised one of the strongest teams in the world in any Olympic sport. Since diving was introduced to the Olympic program at the 1904 Games in St. Louis, U.S. divers have won 46 of a possible 82 gold medals (China is second with nine), and 127 total medals out of 248 awarded, including ties (Germany and the former East Germany are second with 28). But at the '96 Atlanta Games, the U.S. team managed just bronze medals by Mary Ellen Clark on women's platform and Mark Lenzi on men's springboard. At the '98 World Championships in Perth, Australia, Dumais won a silver medal on the men's one-meter springboard, an event that is not on the Olympic program, and the women's teams won bronzes on synchronized three-meter ( Kathy Pesek and Tracy Bonner ) and 10-meter ( Kristin Link and Lindsay Long ). In Sydney it is possible the United States could be shut out of the medals for the first time at a major international competition since the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. U.S. Diving technical director Ron O'Brien, a former Olympic coach, and Jay Lerew, who will coach the team in Sydney, discussed the prospects for the 2000 U.S. Olympic team: O'Brien: "People are saying we're gonna go for zero this time. We have not competed up to our capability. We've been somewhat second-guessed and rightly so because we haven't medaled much recently. You can't dive one dive for 4s and 5s and expect to beat the Chinese and the Russians and everyone else. Those people are just too good. But I like this team. It's a good mix and they're very competitive with each other. Those who survived the close competitions here did so because they had to nail some crucial dives. They'll have to do that on every dive in Sydney." Lerew: "We used to be on top of the world, then we sent our coaches around the world and taught everyone else how to dive. Now it's pretty much an even playing field. It's just a matter of who has the gun on that day. The Chinese are great, but some of their people are vulnerable, too."
Ruiz is Americans' best hopeO'Brien and Lerew also offered their thoughts on Ruiz, whose 16 career national titles are already second to Greg Louganis' stratospheric total of 47. Lerew is Ruiz's personal coach in Orlando. Dr. Sammy Lee, who won consecutive platform titles at the 1948 and '52 Olympics and coached Louganis, compared Ruiz to Louganis and also evaluated Ruiz's medal chances in Sydney. O'Brien: "Mark has the talent to double gold. He can dive with those people. Comparing Mark's potential to what Greg achieved is like comparing Tiger Woods to Jack Nicklaus. Mark's too young [21]. Greg was up there for 12 years. Lerew: "It was a tough pressure meet for Mark here, because he was expected to do it. The last few national championships, he's been down by 40 points and he always finds a way to do it. He was more in control this time, leading from the front. ... He's matured a lot. I first saw him at an age-group meet when he was 12 and he was a little bugger. I don't think the other kids liked him because he'd cut in front of them on the dive line and jump right in dive after dive after dive. They'd be up there concentrating and thinking about it and he'd nail these rip entries like they were nothing. Now I'd say he still has the enthusiasm he had then, but he's worked for what he's gotten." Lee: "Mark's a good diver, but he doesn't measure up to Greg Louganis yet. I like Mark's attitude. He's very relaxed, smiling, seeing his friends in the crowd, but then he's able to concentrate at the last minute. A lot of divers can't do that. I'd like to see him stretch out a little harder on his entries."
Regarding Ruiz's Olympic-medal prospects, Lee said: "When I saw him last time at the World Championships [Ruiz placed sixth on platform] I would have said he had no chance. Now if he's on he has a good chance, especially on platform. I'd say the favorite would be Dmitry Sautin of Russia. I haven't seen him miss a dive yet. He's a cat, not as graceful as Greg was, but very tough. Mark has some of those qualities, too, but he needs to prove it at a World Championship or an Olympics."
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