U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES 1991 : DIVING : Smith: Winning Has New Priority

It has been almost three years, and Cokey Smith says the nightmares don’t come as often anymore. But when they do, they still shake her to the core of her being.

Smith, a 26-year-old diver from Ann Arbor, Mich., was a passenger in Bruce Kimball’s car Aug. 1, 1988, when he lost control and slammed into a crowd of teen-agers on a cul-de-sac in Brandon, Fla. Two were killed and six others were injured, three critically.

Kimball, whose blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit, received a 17-year prison sentence. Smith was merely a prisoner to her own mind.

Saturday at USC’s McDonald’s Swim Stadium, Smith won the Olympic Festival gold medal in the women’s platform with 418.74 points. It was the seventh best score in Festival history and put an exclamation point on her tower victory in the 1991 Indoor Nationals in April. Houston’s Linda Pesek (405.90) won the silver and Courtney Nelson of Concord, Calif., won the bronze with 389.16.

Even in the thrill of victory, however, Smith can’t completely shake the memories of three years ago.

“It screwed up my diving for a year and a half. Heck, it screwed up my life for a year and a half,” she said. “It was at least that long before I could put it aside and get on with life, sort of resolve it inside myself.

“At times, it still really gets to me, but the visions aren’t quite as vivid anymore.”

Two weeks after the accident, Smith realized a dream--one of her primary goals as a diver--and climbed the tower during the Olympic trials.

“It never left my mind,” she said of the crash. “There was this total lack of concentration. I had been diving so well all summer, but all of sudden, diving didn’t seem very important.”

It showed during the preliminaries as Smith struggled through one of the sloppiest performances of her life. She rebounded in the finals, “somehow diving the best list of my life,” and finished sixth. However, only two divers make the Olympic team.

She can’t remember if she was disappointed or not.

“That kind of (accident) shakes you up and has a way of dropping you into some real perspective in a hurry,” she said.

For a while, her diving career plummeted. Her emotions were spinning but there was no end to the free fall, no smooth entry into the water.

Then, Smith found a niche outside of the pool and slowly regained her equilibrium. She now works full-time as a mortgage underwriter in Ann Arbor and trains in the evening with Bruce’s father, Dick, at Kimball Divers.

“I think the fact I’m having a good year is just a matter of being happy with my life outside the pool,” she said. “I’m working hard and diving hard and staying focused in practices. If I was only diving, I think I’d go crazy. Work gets me away from the pool and the pool gets me away from work.”

Smith, a five-year veteran of the national team who won the platform gold at the 1989 Olympic Festival, used her experience and consistency to win it again Saturday. She turned a slim lead after five rounds into an easy victory with strong performances on her last three dives, earning 8s and 8.5s on a reverse 2 1/2 somersault tuck and a back 2 1/2 somersault pike, and then solid 7s and 7.5s on her final dive, a reverse somersault with 2 1/2 twists.

Smith hopes to maintain the momentum into 1992 and get another shot at making the Olympic team. But she is aware that there are things more precious than medals.

“Every kid who’s serious about the sport has the dream of competing in the Olympics,” she said. “But if I don’t make the team, I don’t make the team. I’ve had a great career, even if it ends tomorrow.”

For some, that might sound trite. But Smith knows too well that it could actually happen.

Mark Bradshaw, who finished 24 points away from a bronze medal in the 1988 Olympics and decided to retire, won the gold medal in the three-meter springboard.

Bradshaw “retired” to become coach at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, but four months later he was diving competitively again. Last year, the 29-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, won two national springboard titles, the Olympic Festival three-meter event, five international titles and two bronze medals in the Goodwill Games.

Saturday, Bradshaw finished with 640.92 points, scoring 7s and 8s on his last four dives to outdistance silver-medalist Kent Ferguson (619.41) and Patrick Jeffrey (611.25), both of Ft. Lauderdale.

“The eighth round was the turnaround round,” Bradshaw said. “I had a real hot dive and the guys ahead of me missed theirs. My last three dives are my best, and I knew I could nail those.”