She Isn’t Afraid to Take the Plunge

Viola Krahn is nothing like the way she describes herself.

“I think I’m kind of a boring person. I never add much to the life of a party,” says Krahn, who lives in Leisure World in Laguna Hills.

Well, Krahn may have slowed a little, but she’s still going at a dazzling pace, having recently set a Masters competition world record score of 202.50 off the one-meter diving board in the recent Sun Life Masters International Meet in Edmonton, Canada.

And, at 89, she happened to be the oldest competitor.

Her next diving event will be later this month at the Outdoor National Meet in Dallas, where she will compete in both the 1-meter and 3-meter categories.

She is practicing for those events three times a week at the Laguna Niguel Recreation Center pool. “I love to be on top of my sport, so I practice,” she says. “I don’t want to make a fool of myself by doing poorly.”

She says she plans to take a break from competing in November, but it won’t exactly be a break from the sporting life. She’ll be at a dude ranch in Arizona to do a little horseback riding.

She also likes to play golf, and she is an active member of the Leisure World 9-Hole Club.

“I never mentioned this before to anyone, but around 1928 I was in horse polo,” she said. “I don’t know how good I was, but we had a winning team. Now I just walk or jog the horse.”

Krahn said she set her first diving record in 1924, when she won the U.S. Junior National Championship.

After a long hiatus from competition, Krahn returned to the board in 1978 in Masters diving events.

“Another diver urged me to get back into this,” she said. “I had never heard of the Masters program, but I went over to the pool and just got into it.”

Others find her a role model.

“I have had so many young people tell me I am an inspiration to them, but I don’t understand why. I do things like that because I enjoy them, and I have to admit that jumping up and down on the board exhilarates me.”

“I’ve been fortunate to have the energy that I have,” she said. Aside from sports, she has for 13 years been a Meals on Wheels volunteer for the program at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills. She attributes some of her energy to exercise and a diet that includes lots of vegetables.

Krahn, who has been twice married and widowed, said she did not work until she was 50.

“I’ll tell you how stupid I was,” she said. “I took a job as a secretary because I took typewriting in high school, but I didn’t know what a stapler was.”

And she didn’t enjoy working, either.

“I didn’t like being in four walls. I wanted to be outdoors, and I didn’t want to be regimented.”

In looking back at her life, she said, “I have no complaints,” she said. But for the life of her, she said, “I can’t believe the hurry everyone is in. Many times I think people hurry to wait. What’s the rush?”