Troy Dumais, Ruiz Make Team

Troy Dumais, a 20-year-old from Ventura, and Mark Ruiz, a 21-year-old from Orlando, Fla., have made the U.S. Olympic 3-meter diving team.

How?

Neither will ever really know for sure because they could not watch at the end of Thursday’s competition.

But the scoreboard showed that Ruiz was the winner with 1,130.67 points and that Dumais was second with 1,120.32.

Neither had calculated how only 24.99 points separated four divers--1996 Olympian David Pichler, Dumais, Kevin McMahon and Ruiz, and neither was witness to McMahon and Pichler, sensing the pressure and botching the final dives.

Ruiz had an incredible 98.70 points on his final dive, nearly 20 points better than his other five dives in the finals of the U.S. Olympic diving 3-meter trials.

Ruiz was in fourth place entering the final dive. Only two divers would qualify for the Olympics. Four divers followed him, and any of them could have beaten Ruiz. He turned and faced a wall.

Troy Dumais knew the pain of finishing third at the Olympic trials. He had done that in 1996 when beaten by Pichler for the second spot on the platform team.

Dumais felt another pain Thursday. He passed two kidney stones and arrived at King County Aquatic Center only 1 1/2 hours before the competition.

Ruiz, the favorite who had finished first on the 3-meter and the platform at U.S. Indoor Nationals two months ago, moved from fourth to first with his final dive, a reverse 3 1/2 somersault with a half-twist. When Ruiz hit the water, he knew he had hit the dive. When he looked at the scores--a 10, five 9.5s and one 9--Ruiz knew he had done his best.

“Did I know if it would be good enough?” Ruiz asked. “No, I didn’t. I couldn’t watch from there on.”

Dumais had felt near-perfection earlier. His fourth dive of the six-dive program, a forward 1 1/2 somersault with three twists, had earned him three 10s and four 9.5s. His previous dive, a reverse 2 1/2 somersault, which Dumais had missed, achieved scores of 4s and 5s.

“But when I get down, I get mad,” Dumais said. “I do my best when I’m in a hole.”

Diving second-to-last in the 13-man final, Dumais did an inward 2 1/2 somersault, scoring 76.50 points. Knowing that if Pichler hit his final dive, Ruiz would be knocked to third. Again.

By now Dumais was nearly giddy with tension and exhaustion. He did not have time at the hospital for an X-ray that would tell him if he had any more kidney stones. A year ago, at the World University Games in Spain, Dumais had suffered a similar attack. For two days he thought he had a bad muscle spasm. This time he knew.

“The pain is incredible, like your body is being torn apart,” Dumais said.

“When I had the second attack my coach [Matt Scoggin of the University of Texas diving club] asked if I wanted to withdraw. I told him if I could walk I was going to dive.”

Pichler, 31, of Butler, Pa., was discouraged enough that he could only issue a statement through his coach, Patrick Jeffrey, that he would compete in the platform competition this weekend.

With his disastrous final dive, Pichler ended fourth, behind P.J. Bogard of Eden Prairie, Minn. Falling from third to fifth on his last dive was McMahon of Fremont, Neb., who has been diving at USC for the Trojan Dive Club under coach Alik Sarkisyan. Former El Toro High and Mission Viejo Nadadores standout Tyce Routson, who now lives and trains in Miami, finished 10th. Dumais’ 21-year-old brother, Justin, was 13th.

Ruiz and Troy Dumais have become best friends. They were rivals all through junior diving. Last summer they had predicted to each other they would be Olympic teammates. They will dive on Saturday and Sunday in the platform trials.

“And, boy, that will be easier now,” Ruiz said. “The pressure’s off big time.”

Dumais agreed. Big time.