Swimming and Diving / Tracy Dodds : Neyer Has a Different Mission Now, but Her Goals Are Still the Same

Megan Neyer, who used to be one of Ron O’Brien’s divers with the Mission Viejo Nadadores, is 24 now and in graduate school at the University of Florida, studying psychology. She completed her college eligibility a year ago.

So what is she doing this weekend? She’s back in Mission Viejo, diving in the McDonald’s Cup meet.

The meet is the third of four U.S. diving meets set up for divers such as Neyer, Olympic double gold medalist Greg Louganis, 27; Olympic silver medalist Bruce Kimball, 23; Olympic silver medalist Kelly McCormick, 27, and Olympic silver medalist Michele Mitchell, 25.

O’Brien, who made the same move that swimming coach Mark Schubert made from the Mission Viejo Nadadores to the Mission Bay Makos in Boca Raton, pushed hard for the funding for these meets, and he got it from the U.S. Olympic Committee. O’Brien is the coach of the 1988 Olympic team, and he wants to keep the veterans in competition.

“The post-college divers are our best divers, and we needed this kind of competition to keep them sharp,” he said. “Local meets don’t give them the kind of challenge that they need. I like to compare diving to golf. If Jack Nicklaus decides to play in the Masters, he doesn’t just show up and play. He has to play a few tournaments to get ready, to get that edge.”

The divers are working toward the ’88 Olympics in Seoul as a long-term goal, but they’re also looking toward World Cup competition in Holland April 23-26 and Pan Am competition at Indianapolis in August.

Neyer, who did not make the ’84 Olympic team, was one of the many hurt by the 1980 boycott. She qualified for the ’80 Olympic team as the top woman on both springboard and platform. To make the ’88 team, she’ll have to go up against the same divers who defeated her the last time.

But she says she’s a better diver now than she was then. She still works with her college coach, Kent Vosler, when she’s at school. And she has a shorter commute now to work with O’Brien when she competes for the Makos. She used to make the cross-country trip to compete for the Nadadores because she wanted to work with O’Brien.

“You come to a point where you kind of know whether you want to go on,” she said. “I knew I wasn’t done. I’m still enjoying training and I’m still getting better. I feel like I’m still on an upswing.”

O’Brien considers this competition among the top U.S. athletes crucial. “We’ll have as strong a team as we had in 1984, if not stronger,” he said. “But, even if we are stronger, it will be difficult to repeat our performance then. We won 8 of 12 medals. That was with the home advantage. No travel, no time change, no food problems. . . . But as far as the quality of our divers, I think we’re looking very good.”

Notes The diving at Mission Viejo will begin today at 9 a.m. with quarterfinals for springboard competition continuing all morning. Quarterfinals in platform competition will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday, springboard semifinals will begin at 11 a.m., with platform semifinals starting at 2 p.m. Finals will be Sunday, springboard at 1 p.m. and platform at 2:30 p.m. . . . The Phillips 66-U.S. Swimming short course national meet is being held this weekend at the Mission Bay Aquatic Center in Boca Raton, Fla. The top swimmers 18 and under at this meet will make the teams that will compete at the U.S. Olympic Festival July 14-16 in Chapel Hill, N.C., and in a U.S.-Canada dual meet next weekend in Montreal. The top young swimmers also will qualify to be drafted onto the four U.S. Olympic Festival teams. . . . Mitch Ivey of the Concord-Pleasant Hill club will coach the team that will compete in Canada. His assistants will be Don Lamont, the women’s coach at USC, and John Collins, the coach of the Badger Swim Club of Larchmont, N.Y.