U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL: ORANGE COUNTY’S DAY : LOS ANGELES 1991

Brian Earley, a 20-year-old from Mission Viejo, is following in his father’s footsteps . . . and they lead to a platform more than 30 feet above a pool.

Rick Earley, the USC diving coach, finished sixth in the platform event at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. His son Brian, who will compete in today’s three-meter springboard finals, finished ninth Friday in the platform preliminaries to qualify for Sunday’s finals.

“I’ve seen films of my dad diving and it’s pretty funny,” Brian said. “I mean the lists (of dives) they were doing back then were so easy that no matter how well you did them, you couldn’t win these days. The degree of difficulty just wasn’t high enough.”

Rick Earley also coaches for the Mission Viejo Nadadores during the summer, but this year Brian, a junior at USC, is working out in Pasadena with G.O. Diving Coach Dennis Taylor.

“He’s trained at Mission Viejo every summer,” Rick said. “I guess he just decided it was time to do something else. I think it’s a good idea. It was getting to the point where he wasn’t listening to me anymore.”

Brian, who has won two Pac-10 titles and finished sixth in the platform and springboard events at this spring’s Indoor Nationals, has a knack for the spectacular. He will have to improve his required dives, however, if he wants to climb into the elite group hoping to fill the void left by Greg Louganis’ retirement.

“I hate the required dives,” he said. “Get me spinning and twisting and I’m happy.”

Earley hopes to spin and twist his way onto the 1992 Olympic team, but if he fails, he figures it won’t be his last shot at Olympic glory.

“I’ll stay around until ‘96, but I’ve still got almost a year until the (1992) Trials,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of work to do, but my platform workouts have been going really well.”