Olympic Dreams : Diver Well on Her Way to Winning a Spot in the 2000 Games

This was going to be a fun weekend for Kristen Marquis.

After all, she already had qualified for the Junior Olympic Nationals in all three diving events--the one-meter, three-meter and platform. So last weekend’s Junior Olympic Zone D championships became a highly competitive practice session.

There were bigger meets ahead.

Next week she’ll participate in the nationals--for which she qualified last year. Aug. 9, there’s the Junior Olympic World Championships in China--for which Marquis qualified last month.

She was set, with no need to sweat a regional meet that had few rewards. Then Marquis finished second in the one-meter event on Friday. Everything changed.

“I bought this child-rearing book, ‘The Strong-Willed Child,’ when Kristen was 1,” said Cheryl Marquis, her mother. “It goes up to age 15. So far, it has described Kristen.”

Marquis, a 14-year-old diving phenom, imposed her will on others. She won the three-meter competition Saturday and the platform Sunday.

Just a relaxing, low-stress weekend.

“I told myself to have a good time,” said Marquis, who dives for the Mission Viejo Nadadores. “I was qualified for the nationals, so this [meet] didn’t mean a whole lot. But I was a little disappointed Friday. Mentally, I told myself, I better try my hardest.”

Such determination has served Marquis well.

A year ago, she swept the three diving events at the 13-and-under nationals.

But this year, she is in the 14-16 group and has proceeded to knock off more experienced competition. She again swept the three events to qualify for the Junior Olympics.

“She just turned 14 in May and she still outperformed the competition,” said Hong Ping Li, her coach. “She wasn’t intimidated.”

No time for that, not with Marquis’ timetable.

It’s an ambitious schedule, one that has her in Sydney, Australia, for the 2000 Olympics, which is a goal that many already have penciled in. It would be hard to find a talented, young athlete who didn’t have plans Down Under.

But Marquis might have that extra ooomph to get there.

She already is following the path of past Nadadores divers. Greg Louganis, Wendy Wyland and Wendy Williams all honed their skills in Mission Viejo before collecting Olympic medals.

Marquis knows the legacy well.

“I remember watching the 1988 Olympics and seeing Greg Louganis dive,” said Marquis, who will attend Santa Margarita High in the fall. “I had just started diving and I said right then, ‘I want to be in the Olympics.’ ”

Idle talk, unless you know Marquis.

“When she was 9 or 10, she wanted to know what were the best colleges,” said her father, Gary. “I told her the Ivy League schools. She asked if there were any closer and I said Stanford. She said, ‘Oh, they have a diving club. I’m going to dive for Stanford.’ “When I was 10, I didn’t think about anything but playing games.”

Marquis, who will take five honors classes in the fall, has always been focused. Diving quickly became an important focal point.

She began as a swimmer with the Nadadores at 5. Because the family had a pool, her mother wanted Marquis to be a strong swimmer as a precaution.

But Marquis was soon bored swimming laps.

“It was just going back and forth,” Marquis said.

Said Cheryl Marquis: “One day she looked over at the diving pool and said, ‘Mom, I want to try that.’ ”

She had seen that determination from her daughter before.

“We had her in gymnastics when she was 5 and after a week she came to us and said, ‘This sport is not for me,’ ” Cheryl Marquis said. “I don’t think the gymnastic teachers were too upset about it. They weren’t used to a 5-year-old who spoke her mind.”

Li, on the other hand, was well equipped to deal with a strong-willed diver.

He had been a Olympic diver for China in 1980 and 1984 before becoming the Nadadores diving coach in 1990. His arrival coincided with Marquis’ interest in the sport.

At first, Marquis wasn’t so sure about her decision. Her first attempt from the platform took most of the day. The height made her delay the jump as long as possible.

When she finally took the leap, she was hooked.

“I loved the twisting and turning,” Marquis said. “It was fun. Wendy Williams was training with the Nadadores that year and she didn’t act like she had to be there. She was always smiling and talking with us.”

Fun was fun, but there was serious work ahead.

“You could see Kristen’s potential right away,” Li said. “And she always set high goals for herself.”

So far, she has achieved each one.

Marquis was twice the regional diving champion for the 9-and-under division. She advanced in her zone, keeping up with the local competition, then made the leap to national prominence a year ago.

“Part of it is she matured,” Li said. “She got exposure to a lot of good competition when she was younger. She gained that experience. But she had the desire, that was important.”

It carried her through at the Canadian-American-Mexican games last year. Marquis won the one-meter event for the 13-and-under division. She added to her success at the world championship qualifying meet in June. Marquis bolted in the lead in all three events, against divers who had two more years of experience.

“I didn’t let the pressure get to me,” Marquis said. “I didn’t know if I was winning or some one else was winning. I just stayed focused on what I was doing.”