U.S. Outdoor Diving Championships : Louganis Completes His Sweep on Platform

Sunday was just another day at Irvine’s Heritage Park at the Phillips 66/U.S. Outdoor Diving Championships--a national meet suffering a big chill from the big shadow of the Olympic trials a few weeks away.

Greg Louganis won the 10-meter platform with a score of 632.58 to run his record of national titles to 47. He looked as excited over this accomplishment as a kid getting a unsolicited second serving of broccoli.

“I don’t feel old enough to have won 47 titles,” Louganis said.

He later explained that, in an Olympic year, even national championships tend to pale, becoming, “just another stop along the way to the (Olympic) trials.”

Louganis said he was happy with the way he dived over the meet’s five days. He should be, he swept all events (1-meter, 3-meter, platform). Still, with Seoul coming ever so close this meet just didn’t mean as much.

“Maybe it will hit me later what this means,” he said. “Right now I’m focused ahead.”

Focusing beyond that, Louganis said he’ll be taking time off after the Olympics, though he stopped short of announcing his retirement. He said he’ll take two years off to pursue an acting career, after that he’s not sure.

Bruce Kimball, who has kept Louganis from winning more national titles, finished second in the platform with a score of 626.31. This was Kimball’s last national meet. He’s planning to retire from diving whether or not he makes the Olympic team. How did he describe the tremendous emotional upheaval of the moment?

“Yep, that’s it for me.”

Touching.

He admitted it was hard for him to get real excited about it, “my sights are really on the trials.”

Then there’s Wendy Williams.

Saturday, before she made her first dive in the the 3-meter competition, she received some of the meet’s biggest cheers for her swim suit--a florescent green, black and white checkerboard concoction that looked like something Peter Max painted in the late 1960s.

She finished second to Tristan Baker-Schultz and later admitted she was rooting for Baker-Schultz to win all along, explaining she doesn’t consider herself a very good springboard diver.

Williams won the 3-meter springboard title at the 1984 outdoor championships.

Sunday, she was just cruising through the competition of the platform, taking close to a 30-point lead after 5 dives.

A couple minor disasters later, she was in second behind Wendy Wyland with one dive to go. Wyland missed badly on her final dive, a back 2 1/2 somersault pike, opening the door for Williams.

She responded with an outstanding inward 2 1/2 somersault pike that earned her 9s, 9.5s and one 10.

Williams said it was the first 10 she’d received since, “I was 10 years old competing in a meet in Podunk, Oklahoma.”

This made Williams very happy. Then someone had to ruin it all and call her the favorite in the platform going into the trials.

“I hate that word,” she said. “I don’t want people thinking of me as a favorite, and I don’t want to think of myself that way. I like to come from behind.”

Still, it’s inevitable that people will call her the favorite at the trials, isn’t it?

“If they do, I’ll ignore them,” she said.

To Williams, winning this national meet was nice but she’s not going to get to worked up about it. Not because she’s looking ahead to the Olympic trials, Williams just doesn’t get too worked up about winning or losing.

“Life does go on,” she said.

Quite a switch from the woman who, when training with Ron O’Brien in Mission Viejo four years ago, said she thought, “my life would end if I didn’t make the Olympic team.”

Williams has since left O’Brien, not because of any dispute, but because she thought it was time for a more relaxed atmosphere. She now dives for the Hurricane Diving Club in Miami. If she doesn’t make the Olympic team this year, she has already planned a vacation.