Keim, Davison Make a Big Splash in Earning Berths

For two days Jenny Keim dove with poise, confidence and joy. Having grown up in the spotlight, first when she was a promising gymnast, then as an 18-year-old Olympian who didn’t always welcome the expectations of others, Keim has found peace with herself and the sport.

After her last dive at the U.S. Diving trials, after wowing the crowd with a succession of 9.0s and 9.5s no matter what the dive, Keim gave a fist pump and a smile. The 22-year-old from Miami, whose parents are living in Sydney because of her dad’s business, won the 3-meter trials on Wednesday and will represent the U.S. for the second time at the Summer Games. Keim finished ninth in 1996 and expects to do better this time.

“I’m on Cloud 11,” Keim said. “I started diving when I was 6. I’m hoping this time will turn out a little better. Last time I didn’t compete as well as I wanted.”

Joining Keim on the U.S. team is Michelle Davison, 20, from Columbia, S.C. Davison made a recovery from a disappointing 15th-place finish two months ago at the U.S. Indoor nationals.

Mission Viejo’s Erica Sorgi, who a year ago won the 3-meter at the U.S. Junior and Senior Summer Nationals, finished 12th out of 12 divers in the finals.

Sorgi will have one more chance to make the U.S. team in the platform trials beginning Friday.

Sorgi left the pool in tears last night, saying she was “really disappointed. I wanted to do a lot better.”

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The men began their 3-meter competition with preliminaries and semifinals and Ventura’s Troy Dumais, 20, recovered from smacking his foot on the board during optional dives and scored two perfect 10s on his reverse dives to move from fifth to second place.

Dumais, who finished third on the platform in 1996 and missed a spot on the Olympic team, has 681.66 points entering tonight’s final six dives.

Second is David Pichler, 31, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with 682.86 points. Pichler is the only returning 1996 men’s Olympian, although he represented the U.S. on the platform and finished sixth.

In third is Kevin McMahon, who is training at USC with coach Alik Sarkisyan and representing the Trojan Diving Club. McMahon, 27, is competing in his first Olympic trials and is from Fremont, Neb. McMahon, whose best finish in U.S. national championships was second on the platform in 1998, has 673.32 points.

Favorite Mark Ruiz, 21, of Miami, who is the 2000 U.S. National Indoor champion on the 3-meter and the platform, is fifth with 663.72 points. Dumais’ older brother, Justin, 21, is 11th.

Tyce Routson, who dove at El Toro High and for the Mission Viejo Nadadores, is 13th place. Though normally only the top 12 from the semifinals qualify for the finals, Routson will dive tonight because Rio Ramirez, who is ninth, is still a Cuban citizen and ineligible to represent the U.S. at the Olympics.

Troy Dumais was one of four divers in the optional program to hit the board on the inward 2 1/2 somersault. Ruiz was also one of the four to give himself a bloody foot on that dive. Dumais dove in the evening session with his left foot wrapped in tape to protect the slash on the bottom of his foot, but said his toes hurt.

This did not stop Dumais from scoring the only 10s so far of these trials with his second of five optional dives in the evening program. “When I’m behind,” Dumais said, “I push myself harder. I think I did my best [required] list of dives ever tonight.”