U.S. Olympic Women’s Diving Trials : Mitchell, Williams Bounce Back for Platform Berths

Michele Mitchell, rebounding from shoulder surgery and a serious loss of confidence, and Wendy Lian Williams, recovered from a case of burnout that led her to take a leave of absence from her sport two years ago, completed their comebacks Saturday night, qualifying as U.S. Olympians in women’s 10-meter platform diving.

Not nearly so happy was Wendy Wyland, bronze medalist at the 1984 Olympic Games, who placed third this time at the U.S. Olympic trials, missed making the team and ended up crying in a hallway of the Indiana University natatorium.

Under previously used scoring rules, only Saturday’s point totals would have been counted. Wyland would have tied Mitchell for first place, and Williams would have been the odd woman out.

But, because the finals totals were added to Friday’s semifinal results, Wyland fell short and will not make the trip to Seoul.

“It’s unfortunate they don’t take three divers, like the old days, because Wendy (Wyland) will be sitting at home during the Olympics, watching, when she could have gone with us and medaled, too,” Mitchell said.

After the Games, Mitchell, 26, of Boca Raton, Fla., the Olympic silver medalist of 1984, will retire from what she called “the self-inflicted torture” of diving.

Mitchell, who weighs 110 pounds, said: “This little bathing suit’s going to be hanging in the corner for good. You gotta hang it up sometime. I’m just glad it wasn’t tonight.”

Two months ago, after a shoulder operation and a sinus infection that affected her equilibrium, Mitchell got the yips so badly that she was afraid to do her best dive, an inward 3 1/2 tuck, which requires a diver’s head to come dangerously close to the platform.

A sports psychologist got her straightened out, and Mitchell was able to put the dive back into her program. Without it, said her coach, Ron O’Brien, she “would not be on this Olympic team.”

Mitchell, who was in second place entering her final dive, ended with 913.68 points, Williams 906.87 and Wyland 871.74.

Williams had the only perfect scores of the contest, two 10.0s on her fourth dive. A St. Louis native who attends the University of Miami (Fla.), Williams is going to the Olympics for the first time. She said: “I feel like the Academy Awards. I want to thank everybody who helped me along the way.”

Williams helped herself by taking six months off in 1986, refusing to watch diving or even discuss it. She suffered not only from burnout but the disappointment of just missing the Olympic team in 1984, having placed third at that year’s trials behind Mitchell and Wyland.

“I’m just numb now,” Williams said. “I always thought if I made the Olympics I wouldn’t be able to stop crying. But my tear ducts are just frozen.”

This was not the case for Wyland, who, 15 minutes after the competition ended, was still sobbing in a nearby corridor, being comforted by another diver.