UCLA’s Goltman Will Try to Forget Injury : Comeback Diver Points for NCAA Championships

Karla Goltman was in sixth place with one dive remaining at the 1985 Senior National Diving Championship in St. Louis. Her coup de grace was a dive she knew she could nail, a reverse 1 1/2 pike.

She stepped into her takeoff, but the waning daylight impaired her judgment of the end of the board.

“I wasn’t scared in the air,” said Goltman, 21. “I came down with my arms straight and hit the board and crumpled in the water.”

Her father, Bill, who was videotaping the meet from the stands, heard her hit and dropped his camera.

“I wasn’t sure if she hit her head,” he said. “You could hear this horrible sound of bone on diving board.”

Karla slowly made her way to the ladder. She suffered only abrasions on her right arm and left fingers.

“There was something wrong with the way she threw her arms,” Bill said. “She lacked confidence.”

It’s been three years since Karla, a two-time All-American at UCLA, underwent surgery to repair a shoulder she injured in a pool accident in 1979. She has healed physically, but the psychological scars remain.

“I always worry about it during new dives,” said Goltman, a junior and two-time winner of UCLA’s most valuable diver award. “I think, ‘Gosh, I’ll have to keep my arms together so my shoulder doesn’t fall off.’ ”

Goltman considered quitting the team after surgery but Coach Van Austen gave her the encouragement to recover.

“Van helped me to stop battling inside myself,” she said.

Goltman waged battle on her competition, qualifying for a berth in the NCAA championship meet Friday through Monday in Austin, Tex., after being back for only one meet.

“There was a revenge aspect, because when you are out people doubt you,” Goltman said. “They say, ‘You’ll never come back. You’ll never be as good as you were.’ ”

But this season Goltman has had more problems with shoulder and biceps injuries and inner turmoil.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself, and when I was hurt this year, it seemed like it was never ending,” said Goltman, who placed second in the Pac-10 Championships. “Diving practices were getting worse. I wasn’t being nice to anybody. I wanted everyone to leave me alone.”

For solace, Goltman turned to friend Brian Blutreich, a shot-putter for the UCLA track team. Blutreich, a junior, had back problems and could commiserate with her about the pitfalls of competing in an individual sport.

“If you do poorly, there’s nobody there to pick up the slack,” Blutreich said. “You have to suck it up and be humble about it.

“I told Karla, ‘I’m not going to lie to you. Diving is cutthroat and you have to be your own best friend.’ ”

But sometimes the competitiveness of diving extends beyond the UCLA pool and tests the friendship of Goltman and roommate Andy Littlefield, 21, who is also on the team.

“There have been times when we will work out and not even make eye contact,” Littlefield said.

Goltman said the fact that she has established a name in collegiate diving helps her at competitions. In Pac-10 meets, one coach from each participating school, except that of the diver being scored, is allowed to judge.

“You get judged on your name a lot,” Goltman said. “You don’t usually come in your first year and win a national title. Judges don’t know you and tend to score you a little lower.

“To those people who get frustrated, I say, ‘Wait, your turn will come. They (the judges) just have to get to know you.’ ”

Goltman was coached for two years in high school in Michigan by Chris Seufert, who won the bronze medal in the three-meter springboard at the 1984 Olympics. In 1984 Goltman transferred to Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo, competed with the Nadadores Diving Team and got support from diver Michele Mitchell, 1984 Olympic silver medalist, and Greg Louganis, who won two golds in Los Angeles.

“I was impressed that they were so concerned with the younger divers,” Goltman said. “I took everything they said like gold.”

While developing a name in the sport, Goltman has had to learn to deal with mental tactics employed by divers.

“The kids in high school would try to psyche you out,” Goltman said, “They’d say stupid stuff like, ‘Which foot do I start with?’ Little things, but those little things stick in your mind.

“I’d think, ‘Oh no! Which foot do I start with?’ But I’d been doing it right for two years.”

The dedication that Goltman saw in the older divers helped her in school and diving.

“I’m not competitive in school, I’m more structured,” said Goltman, valedictorian at Capistrano Valley. “I have things to do every night for school, and I get so mad at myself if I don’t do them.”

Goltman, who majors in economics and is planning a career in investment banking, said the winter quarter is usually her worst because road trips with the team keep her out of the classroom.

Her experience on the road has taught her to deal with the pressure of competition, but last year at the NCAA finals in Austin, Goltman’s first televised meet, she was camera shy.

“You’re all by yourself and the lights shine up at you,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, am I going to freak out or something?’ ”

That case of stage jitters subsided, but Goltman said she will have to learn to handle the pressure of bigger televised meets such as this year’s Olympic trials in Indianapolis.

“Olympic trials will be easier because I really have no shot,” said Goltman, who feels her chances are much better for the 1992 Games. “I’m an underdog with nothing to lose and everything to gain.”