USA Diving Communications Intern, Kelly Capehart, wrote a great article for USADiving.org about divers’ superstitions and rituals (link). The article includes comments from Olympians Mary Beth Dunnichay, Kelci Bryant, David Boudia, and Thomas Finchum, about their thoughts on rituals and some of the things they do to focus before a meet.

Divers are no exception to the many accounts of superstitions and rituals seen throughout sports, and these rituals vary even among divers. As Kelly reported, “Rituals certainly do vary from diver to diver, wavering between the mundane and the slightly more unusual.” However, she goes on to say that there is a distinction between superstitions and what can be thought of as simply a ritual focusing technique.

In an interview, Olympic coach John Wingfield of the National Training Center in Indianapolis told Kelly that routine can not only help you get into the zone for competition, but it can help to keep you there. You can hear all of Wingfield’s comments on the YouTube video now appearing on the USA Diving YouTube channel. Here is another clip that can be found on the USA Diving channel: it’s Olympian Kelci Bryant talking about her pre-meet rituals.

Of course my favorite parts of the article are the quotes from a former college diver (and current blogger):

Eric Teske, who dove for five years at Miami ( Ohio) University and plans to return to Masters diving, explained that

The international swine flu scare caused some countries to call their divers home, but luckily for us it didn’t keep the photographers away! Outdoor diving photos always look amazing! Check out these photos from the AT&T; FINA Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale.

> Check out all the photos on the DayLife.com gallery
> Read: Swine flu fears force China out of U.S. diving meet
> Get the meet results from DiveMeets.com
> Read: David Boudia, Thomas Finchum Win Synchronized Platform Gold

Remember to watch the 2009 FINA Diving World Series stop in Mexico City, airing this Friday and Saturday from 6pm-8:30pm (EST). Visit the Universal Sports schedule and check out their event preview for a list of Americans planning to compete.

> Ryan Lochte T-Shirt Cannon from Flickr: i_hate_username
> Matt Grevers’ Olympic Tattoo from Flickr: mikebesto
> London Tower Bridge Swimming Sculpture from Flickr: law_keven
> Water Polo Tabby from Flickr: flying_hairballs
> Boudia and Finchum Synchro Platform via The New York Times
> Children of Glory (2006) Screenshot by IMDB: Szabads

FINA Press Release: As expected, China dominated the second leg of the 2009 FINA Diving World Series, held in Changzhou (CHN) on March 27-28, by conquering seven out of the eight titles on offer. The only non-local victory went to Australia

Four divers will represent the United States at the FINA Diving World Series in Changzhou, China, on March 27-28.

2008 Olympians Kelci Bryant (Chatham, Ill./Indianapolis, Ind.) and Ariel Rittenhouse (Santa Cruz, Calif./Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) will compete in women

Nine divers have been selected to the 2009 FINA World Championships Team.

The team members were hand-picked following a four-day selection camp held at Ohio State University. Although the camp included a meet format, results from the meet did not guarantee a spot on the team. Synchronized teams will be selected in May.

Six former Olympians were among the divers chosen. Troy Dumais will dive men’s 3-meter. Chris Colwill will join Dumais on 3-meter and will also compete 1-meter. Christina Loukas will dive 1-meter and 3-meter, and Ariel Rittenhouse will join Loukas on women

DiveMeet.com has released some early results from the “meet” associated with the U.S. World Diving Team Selection Camp. As a reminder, I put “meet” in quotes, because the winner of the events does not automatically receive a spot on the World Team. The format is being used to evaluate the divers’ consistency across several lists, performance (of course), as well as degree of difficulty.

There are some ups and downs to this format. As far as our World Team selection is concerned, we are more likely to get the best, most consistent divers to represent our country. On the other hand, this format makes it much more difficult for an up-and-coming athlete to break into the international scene. In swimming, where team selection is made by time, athletes have an opportunity to make the team by having a single great meet or swim. The down side? If athletes are shaved and tapered to qualify for the team, there’s no guarantee they will be in the same shape for the actual championships.

Highlights:
Christina Loukas, from Indiana University, was in the top 3 for all three 1m lists.
David Boudia, from Purdue University, had the high score for all 4 rounds of men’s 3m with 477.95 coming in the 3rd round.
Ariel Rittenhouse (Trojan Dive Club), and Christina Loukas traded off 1st and 2nd place performances in 3 straight rounds of women’s 3m.
Christopher Colwill, from Georgia Diving Club, was clearly dominant on men’s 1m, winning 2 of the 3 rounds and getting 2nd in the other.
Haley Ishimatsu (age 16, from Trojan Dive Club) won both rounds of women’s platform, while Nick McCrory and Thomas Finchum showed great consistency by staying in the top 3 for both platform lists.

>>More articles in Diving.
>>Diving World Team selection procedures.

Source: DiveMeet.com

This weekend (February 8th-11th) USA Diving will hold their World Championships Selection Camp at Ohio State University. Divers were personally selected to participate in the event, and received written invitations from USA-D based on their previous performances in Olympic, national, and other international competitions. A list of the selection camp qualifiers can be found HERE from USADiving.org. Selectors will evaluate the divers as they compete in a meet, and reduce the field to 12 divers on 3m and 6 divers on 1m after two lists.

According to USA Diving:

“It is extremely important for all to understand that the selections of those who will continue in the process will not be made on the basis of order of standing by cumulative score after the completion of the first two lists but will be made according to the selection procedures.”

This means, that regardless of who wins the “meet,” the selectors will specifically choose which divers to send to the FINA World Championships in Rome this summer. Team members will be announced Feb. 12th. Synchro pairs will be announced later, and will be evaluated at the Synchronized Diving Assessment next Tuesday, February 10th.

Source: USA Diving