McCormick Finally Achieves Diving Feat That Eluded Mother

Always the ham, Kelly McCormick really layed it on thick when she played the part of the gloating victor. She sat up a little straighter, squared her shoulders, puffed out her chest and nodded a whole series of serious little nods.

Oh, yeah. Pan American gold medal winner. That’s right. New Pan Am record for points on the 3-meter board. Right here. Repeat champion. That’s me.

With her victory over fellow American Megan Neyer at the Indiana University Natatorium Sunday afternoon, McCormick became the first woman to repeat as the Pan Am 3-meter springboard champion.

That had added significance for the daughter of Pat McCormick, who has more diving records and medals than anyone could ever hope to top.

“I just found out that I did something that my mom never did,” McCormick said. “So ha-ha.”

Just kidding, just kidding, Kelly said. “I’m not competitive with my mom,” Kelly said. “She’s my mom.”

Of all the many things Mom did off the boards, including winning two Olympic gold medals in 1952 and also in 1956, and winning back-to-back Pan Am gold medals off the 10-meter platform in 1951 and 1955 and holding the record for the most Pan Am Games total medals, she did not manage back-to-back 3-meter titles when she competed in the Pan Am Games in 1951 and 1955. She finished second in ’51.

So Kelly finally has a first.

Kelly totaled 562.77 points to Neyers’ 544.32. Deborah Fuller of Canada won the bronze medal with 491.94.

Kelly had set the Pan Am Games record for the 3-meter board at 500.73 when she won the gold medal in Caracas in 1983. It was her own record that she broke this time. Her comment? “I didn’t even know I had the old record!”

It was clear from the first dive that McCormick and Neyer were the only contenders for the gold and, until Neyer blew her ninth dive, it was going back and forth by just a couple of points.

Neyer was down by just 1.32 points when she missed on her forward 2 1/2 somersault pike and drew scores of 4.5, 4.5, 5, 6, 5, 5.5 and 5.

As McCormick stood on the board, taking that last deep breath and readying herself to do the exact dive, a woman shouted from the stands, “Go for it, Kelly!”

She then stepped up and scored 7.5, 7, 6.5, 7.5, 7.5, 8 and 8 to take a 22.50-point advantage on that one dive.

Asked later if she thought it had been her mother who had shouted the last-second encouragement, Kelly said that she didn’t know for sure. But, she added, “She would do something like that.”

To that point in the competition, McCormick and Neyer had performed an identical slate of dives. In the early going, the order was slightly different, Neyer opening with a forward 1 1/2 somersault with a twist that was more difficult, and therefore worth more points, than the forward dive McCormick opened with.

After identical second and third dives, Neyer did the forward dive that McCormick had opened with as McCormick took the lead scoring 8s and 9s on an inward 1 1/2 somersault pike. Neyer followed up with that same dive, scoring not quite as well on it, while McCormick went to the dive that Neyer had opened with.

The next four dives they went head-to-head. They were both outstanding on an inward 2 1/2 somersault tuck, a back 2 1/2 somersault pike and a forward 2 1/2 somersault pike.

But then Neyer missed.

“I came in just hoping to land on my head 10 times, and I landed on my head 9 1/2 times,” Neyer said. “I didn’t feel that I didn’t have the right kind of top, or I would have compensated. I’ve been trying to get the rhythm of the dive. My coach has been telling me to reach more and slow the dive down. I guess I slowed it down too much.”

McCormick said that she did hear the announcement of Neyers’ scores, but she was not keeping track of the totals. She said she just kept concentrating on her own last two dives.

Neyer, who has a degree in psychology from the University of Florida and is working on her master’s so that she can counsel athletes, absolutely recovered from the disappointment of her ninth dive to hit her 10th dive. In fact, she outscored McCormick on her final back 1 1/2 somersault with 2 1/2 twists.

It was also the only dive that McCormick didn’t shadow, using her last turn to do a reverse 1 1/2 somersault with 2 1/2 twists.

McCormick’s coach with the McDonald’s Divers, Vince Panzano (who also was her coach at Ohio State), said that McCormick has added difficulty to three of the dives in her program and that if she had had those dives in 1984, she would have had the gold medal instead of the silver medal.

She’ll be going for the gold in ’88.

At 27, she’s not too old. McCormick says she’s like a fine wine, getting better with age.

Panzano said, “Diving is a sport where the older you get, the better you get. Mentally, you’ve been through the ringer. She’s been to the Olympics, the Pan Am Games . . . she has experience a younger person very rarely gets.

“And, physically, with the new dives, she has the power to do it.”

It was a Chinese diver who beat McCormick for the gold in ’84 and Panzano expects her toughest competition in ’88 to be from the Chinese. “This time, we’ll be in their neck of the woods, so it will be difficult,” Panzano said.

But McCormick seems to be very much on top of her game.

“I’m real happy, because I was consistent,” she said.