The USA Olympic Trials - DIVING

Joesitz (RIP) · Jun 13, 2004

Did anyone watch the Trials last night on TV? Quite exciting with Caesar Garcia getting perfect scores on the last dive. The no. 2 man came from behind, and thete was a 12 year old spoiler who made 3rd.

I noticed the scoreing was all open with known judges.

Joe

Johar · Jun 13, 2004

One of those young divers in from my state of Indiana.

BTW, how deep are those pools? They look 25 feet deep!

Longhornliz · Jun 13, 2004

I didnt know that 12 yearl olds were able to go to the olympics, got any info on age cut offs?

Joesitz (RIP) · Jun 13, 2004

I think the USA is sending only the top 2. I don't know the limit countries have in sending athletes to the Summer Olys.

The Diving tricks are so much more pretty than the skating elements except for the camel spin.

The Ladies dive tonight!

Joe

Rgirl · Jun 13, 2004

Oh, no! I was keeping an eye out for the diving trials (so beautiful) and I missed it! Dang, dang, dang!

Does anyone know what channel they're showing most of the trials on? NBC or one of the ESPN channels? Is there a website with a schedule of when which trials will be televised? If anyone knows, I'd appreciate the info. I'll start searching the web and the television guide for the ladies trials tonight ASAP!

Thanks for the descriptions of the men Joe, LonghornLiz, and Johar. Very interesting outcome.
Rgirl

fmrus · Jun 13, 2004

I watched the Diving Olympic trials. I hope "the Caesar" medals in Athens. It was very cute how his buddies were dressed up in togas in order to support him. When they show that on TV, the first thing that came to mind was the movie "the Emperor's Club"

A.H.Black · Jun 13, 2004

Rgirl - I have all the trials on my DVR. PM me if you are seriously desparate.

I thought the trials went very well and the people who should be going are going. Mark Ruiz must be the Sandhu of diving. One moment brilliant the next .....

Also thought it was interesting the synchro got the preference this year.

Joesitz (RIP) · Jun 13, 2004

The Trials were on NBC. I doubt they will show them on ESPN which is not an affiliate of NBC.

The Ladies were gooood. Ms Wilkinson was outstanding at the start and then Brittany Viola (first time on the circuit) made some exceptional dives and threatened to take the lead. However, Viola made a boo boo on her last dive and lost a lot of points. It was not enough to catch Wilkinson who gave one heluva last dive to win.

It's one event I want to watch during the Summer Olys.

Joe

PrincessLeppard · Jun 13, 2004

Joe, could you please explain to me, a diving novice, why Ms. Viola wasn't given the second spot? Why was the second spot up for grabs between two other women? Had they won a previous comp or something? I was really confused as to why the top two weren't given the spots on the team.....

Laura

Joesitz (RIP) · Jun 13, 2004

Laura - I was as confused as you are. It has something to do with Synchro Diving (Pairs to me). One of the Synchro winners will go along with Wilkinson. I think the best thing for both of us to do is go to search USA Diving and see what comes up for the rules of the game. I'm too tired tonight, but maybe tomorrow.

Cheers - Joe

A.H.Black · Jun 14, 2004

The basic answer to your question as I understand it is this:

The U.S. could only send 10 divers to the Olympics this year. There are more medals available in synchro than in individual events and the synchro teams that have been working together for a while are more likely to medal than the individual divers. Thus the Diving assn. decided to weight this years trials in favor of synchro and one member of each synchro team gets to compete in the individual event as well. So, only the winner of the individual competition will go to the Olympics while the two members of the synchro team competed against each other for the other individual spot.

The synchro trials were first and appeared on USA network on Friday morning.

The website is here - http://www.usadiving.org/USD_03redesign/events/04trials/home.htm

Rgirl · Jun 14, 2004

AH Black,
Thanks for the offer of sending me the men's trials on DVR. I found the women's trials so I'm at least partially satiated. I'll be taping the diving event during the games, that's for sure. Thanks, though. And thanks for the website and info about the USA channel. I'll check for other trials there.

Joe,
Thanks for the info about NBC. After I posted and signed off I realized, "Duh. ESPN is affiliated with ABC, you fool."

As I said, I watched the women. I loved when they said that in the last four years diving as gone from the equivalent of high jumping to that of pole vaulting, that's how much more difficult it has gotten. And if showed. When somebody drills one of those blind dives, it just gives me chills. I remember when the Chinese were the only ones doing blind dives well, sometimes at all. It will be interesting to see what the Chinese have in diving for Athens.

Plus I love divers' bodies, men and women. They're so sleek, especially when they're fully stretched in preparation for a dive. Love those long, lithe muscles. And the strength it takes to stop or reverse the momentum on some of those dives--amazing.

I too was very impressed with Brittany Viola. What a comer. But Wilkinson was the queen of the women's trials. Such a superb athlete. Have always loved diving at the Olympics, but this year it truly does seem to have gone to a whole new level. I noticed a lot of the women were taped to reduce the forces on certain muscles. You rarely used to see that. I think it's a sign of the increased difficulty.
Rgirl

Joesitz (RIP) · Jun 14, 2004

I also noticed that NBC repeated the Meet in the early hours of the morning. Something ABC should think about and maybe adding a few more skaters to show. They tape everything but what happens to the tape?

Black - Thanks for the information. I would think that Divers would want to team up in Synchro and be more at an advantage of getting to the Olys.

Please, if anyone sees more Trials on TV, alert us. There are some very interesting Sports during the summer, e.g.,Equestian, Archery (will Gena Davis make it this year?), Swimming Meets, Track Meets, field events (I luv the pole vaulting), etc. I see we
already have a thread on Gymnastics. Be nice if we could see Roller Figure Skating.

Joe

Tonichelle · Jun 14, 2004

I saw 3 seconds of it... I just have no ... attraction(?) to guys wearing speedos

eliza88 · Jun 14, 2004

I caught both of the 10M platform comps. I LOVE to watch diving! Such a beautiful sport.

AH Black--thanks for that info! It seemed so strange to my husband and I that we were not sending our top 2 individual divers! I was pretty sure that it had to do with the amount of divers we could send. Nonetheless, I am bummed that the young boy and Viola won't get to go to the games!

How does a country expand their diving team? Is it like that of skating where your placements at the previous Worlds dictates the amount?

I know Gymnastics trials are at the end of the month (the 26th and 27th I believe). I think NBC has most of the trials.

eliza88

A.H.Black · Jun 14, 2004

Please, if anyone sees more Trials on TV, alert us. There are some very interesting Sports during the summer, e.g.,Equestian, Archery (will Gena Davis make it this year?), Swimming Meets, Track Meets, field events (I luv the pole vaulting), etc. I see we
already have a thread on Gymnastics. Be nice if we could see Roller Figure Skating.

USA Network has trials going on every week. Saturday mornings. This week it's water polo. So far I have weight lifting, wrestling, equestrian, and now diving.

I thought it was interesting that the diving trials took place before the National championships which are sometime in the next month or two.

People mentioned how the difficulty has been raised over that last four years. Personally I miss the "compusory" or preliminary dives they used to do. My favorite dive of all time is a "swan" dive that Greg Louganis did at the 1984 summer games. It just floated.

Joesitz (RIP) · Jun 14, 2004

I really thoink if Sports are not a :love:

turn on, then just skip them. It's the old TV rule. If you object to anything get the remote.

Joe

guinevere · Jun 15, 2004

I got to see the end of the men's fianls and the women's springboard and platform. AH Black, thx for the full explanation of why one of the synchro team got a bye into the individual competition (even though the "winner" of that mini-competition came in like 7th place). Part of me wanted Brittany Viola to win - she was awesome! But right before her final dive, Laura Wilkinson had that almost beatific expression she had before her dives in Sydney, and I knew she was going to nail it. That dive would have sent her to Athens even if Viola hadn't made mistakes on her last dive.

And how about Kimiko (can't recall her last name) winning the springboard finals? She's 30 years old, and didn't start diving until she was 20! The second diver in springboard is 26. Go mature ladies, kick booteeeeeee!

I love the summer Olympics. Winter I am so wrapped up in skating that anything else they show is just interfering with the "real" sport, but in the summer I'll watch just about any of the sports, and really enjoy them. My faves are gymnastics, volleyball (indoors, NOT beach), diving/swimming, and track and field. Other than gymnastics I don't watch any of those sports any other time!

guinevere

Joesitz (RIP) · Jun 15, 2004

Hey AH Black - Thanks so much for the heads up on USA mornings. While I'm not crazy about Water Polo, there are so many other Trials I would like to see.

Oh, yes. How could anyone not like the SWAN and Greg looked like he was a bird coming into a landing on the water. But was there any jump of Greg's one didn't like.

Thanks again =

Joe

The USA Olympic Trials - DIVING

Joesitz (RIP)

Johar

Longhornliz

Joesitz (RIP)

Rgirl

fmrus

A.H.Black

Joesitz (RIP)

PrincessLeppard

~ Evgeni's Sex Bomb ~

Joesitz (RIP)

A.H.Black

Rgirl

Joesitz (RIP)

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll

eliza88

A.H.Black

Joesitz (RIP)

guinevere

Joesitz (RIP)

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