U.S. diving duo pulls together for a bronze medal at London Games

LONDON — It was probably the best way for Troy Dumais to handle the situation.

Coming into his fourth Olympics, still looking for his first medal, the veteran diver decided not to think about winning or losing or even glancing at the scoreboard.

“It was about having fun,” he said. “About enjoying the moment.”

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This happy-go-lucky attitude translated into a relaxed, confident performance Wednesday afternoon, Dumais teaming with partner Kristian Ipsen to win a bronze medal in synchronized three-meter springboard diving at the London Olympics.

The competition was dominated by the favorites, Qin Kai and Luo Yutong, the Chinese duo cruising to a gold medal. Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov of Russia earned the silver.

But after all the unpleasant Olympic memories Dumais had accumulated — a near-miss in Sydney, a lackluster performance in Beijing — bronze felt pretty good.

“Life is a rollercoaster,” he said. “It has lots of ups and downs, corkscrews, you just never know what to expect.”

The 32-year-old Ventura native, who lives and trains in Texas, was serious about not being serious. Over lunch in the cafeteria, he made Ipsen promise to keep things light when they reached the pool.

“I get pretty intense at meets,” Ipsen said. “He told me, ‘Let’s just do our dives.’ ”

They had also made another crucial decision by changing the order of their dives.

The last one on the list used to be a difficult, twisting, somersaulting thing that had given Dumais some trouble. A year ago, he hit the board and still has the scars to show for it.

In London, the two tried that dive nearer to the middle of the order and they nailed it, scoring a 90.9 that catapulted them from fourth into second place.

“We were kind of hoping for an 85-pointer,” Coach Matt Scoggin said. “So we knew things were going our way.”

But Dumais had been in this position before, when he and his brother Justin tumbled out of medal contention on their final dive in Athens. He seemed determined not to let the ghosts of Olympics past haunt him.

“Are you having fun?” he kept saying to Ipsen between dives.

His partner, a freshman at Stanford, was a little taken aback.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m having fun,’ ” Ipsen recalled answering.

Their final two dives were solid if not spectacular, not good enough to challenge the Chinese or keep the Russians from slipping past.

But Dumais and Ipsen held onto third as a team from Ukraine had one last chance to unseat them, needing an extraordinary dive to snatch the bronze.

It did not happen.

After the final results flashed on the board — Dumais and Ipsen finally allowed themselves a peek — Scoggin hugged the older diver and whispered: “It was worth the wait.”

Dumais stuck by his carefree attitude, refusing to get emotional. Looking back over a long career, the victories and the disappointments, the most he would offer was a bit of philosophy: “Things happen the way they are supposed to happen.”

david.wharton@latimes.com

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