U.S. Diving Indoor Championships : Louganis’ Gold Medal Goes to 14-Year-Old Boy

Olympic double gold medalist Greg Louganis overcame the challenge of Mike Wantuck to successfully defend his national platform diving championship Sunday in the U.S. Diving Indoor Championships and then presented the gold medal to AIDS victim Ryan White.

Louganis won the competition with 634.50 points. Wantuck, a junior at Ohio State, was second at 632.16, followed by Dan Watson at 605.67.

“I had a little bit of motivation,” said Louganis, who invited Ryan to see Sunday’s competition. “Every time I hit the water it was excruciating pain,” Louganis said refering to the fact he had some warts removed Wednesday.

“I heard about Ryan as I traveled around the country,” said Louganis, who swept all three men’s national titles for the fourth straight time to bring his record total of national championships to 38. “My injuries are superficial and they’ll heal. I wish that that were the case with Ryan.”

Ryan, 14, from Kokomo, Ind., is a hemophiliac and contacted Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome during a blood treatment. His illness was diagnosed in December, 1984. Authorities kept him from attending school for all but one day this year until April 10, when a judge ruled that the court had no evidence to keep him out of school.

In the women’s platform, Olympic medalists Michele Mitchell and Wendy Wyland, teammates for the Mission Bay Makos and longtime rivals, finished first and second.

Mitchell, who won the 3-meter competition Saturday night, claimed her seventh national title by winning the high platform with 432.60 points. She was a silver medalist in the Olympics.

Wyland, the Olympic bronze medalist, edged Ohio State sophomore Karen LaFace by less than a point, 398.22 to 398.07, for second place.

Mitchell, who received a severe scrape from the ankle to the knee on her right leg when she hit a board during practice, said she was surprised at her double victory.

“I’m just not known as a springboard diver,” she said.

She wore an protective bandage around the leg while competing. “It was a little cumbersome,” she said.

The competition was intense with about 15 points separating the leader and fifth place after five rounds. Mitchell, who holds the world record in the event (479.40) then scored between 68.04 and 69.12 on her final three efforts.

“It was a lot like practice today with Wendy going before me,” Mitchell said. “That’s just how we go during practice.

“The thing about Wendy and I is we know we can do all of our dives well, so when you miss it, it gets you frustrated,” Mitchell said.

Wyland, 21, said she thought about giving up diving several times during the past year after suffering a shoulder problem and a broken thumb.

“There were plenty of times I thought that,” she said. “I think you have to hit a pit (low-point) . . . and I haven’t hit that pit.”

The top two finishers earned a trip to Moscow to represent the United States in the Goodwill Games this summer.

The top eight finishers in the meet earned a spot on the U.S. National team and an opportunity to qualify for the world championships.

The list of women making the national team on the platform included Miami freshman Wendy Williams, who had placed first in the prelims; 16-year-old Lori Rizzuto, a high school sophomore from Cincinnati; and 14-year-old Tara Justice, a high school freshman from Independence, Ky.