Back From the World Cup

I got back from China a couple of days ago. I have been struggling with trying to adjust to the drastic 12-hour time change, but I think I am finally normal again. We had a crazy trip back. After a two hour drive to the Shanghai airport we were informed that our flight was delayed 5 hours! So after hanging out in the airport all day we finally took our 13 hour flight to Chicago. We arrived back in the States at 11pm and were going to have to stay in Chicago over night and fly out the next day. We were all very impatient and decided to just drive. Christina and I borrowed her mom’s car and drove through the night and finally arrived back in Bloomington at 5am. It was a long travel, but nothing feels better than to come back home and climb into my own bed for a long night sleep.

Anyways, we had a “free” day in China on Monday since we were not leaving till Tuesday. We decided to travel to Shanghai for the day for shopping and some sight-seeing. It was worth it! I first went to the Yuyuan Garden; it was beautiful (check out my pictures of it!). I guess these types of gardens are through out Shanghai. We then went to a huge market and did some shopping. It always amazes me how cheap things are over there! We then took a taxi to the Bund. The shopping here was not that great, but the view of the Huangpu River and the buildings across the river were unbelievable sights.

World Cup 10 Meter Synchronized Diving Competition

Well, I am done competing. Christina and I finished 7^th. We were in fifth after prelims, but were a little off in finals. I had a great time competing, especially since we had such a large and supportive team there to cheer us on. While we did not as well as we hoped I learned a lot from the competition and look forward to competing in the U.S. Nationals in the beginning of August. There is one more day of competition left and then the team will be heading to Shanghai for a day where we will be able to do some sightseeing and shopping. When we go to competition it is a rare opportunity that we are able to get out and see the cities we travel to so this will be a real treat.

The team overall is doing great, currently in are in good positioning to take home the silver medal for overall team score. It is nice to embrace the team aspect of this sport since it is mainly viewed as an individual sport.

P.S. can you find me in the team picture?

2006 World Cup, China

Hello from Changshu! I am here for 10m synchronized diving with my team mate Christina.

We have been in China for about a week now and the competition has begun. The meet started yesterday with the one meter events. The U.S. did a great job with both women and men all making finals. Christina put in a very solid performance finishing 8^th. Allison Brennan finished right ahead of her in 7^th. For the men Chris Colwill did amazing bringing home the bronze (it was really cool seeing him on the awards stand with two Chinese!) and Steve Segerlin did a great job with a 7^th place finish. It was a great way to start the meet off. I do not compete for a couple more days so I am just continuing my training and cheering my teammates on. Today is men’s 3m as well as women’s 10m. I am actually heading to the pool very soon to watch the competition. Check back for an update on how the U.S. does!

2006 U.S. Fina Grand Prix May 11-14

After the Canada Cup on Sunday we began our travel down to Fort Lauderdale for the U.S. Fina Grand Prix. We spent Sunday night in Vancouver and made our way to Florida by Monday night; it was a very long journey. Florida was a great change of pace being in warm, sunny weather diving outside. We were right on the beach which was another big bonus. The meet was held at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex, also the home of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

10 Meter Competition
I competed in prelims and semifinals on Thursday. Since we are on the ocean, it was very windy, especially 10 meters up in the air. It was a little stressful having to battle with the wind, but everything turned out alright as I advanced to finals in fourth place. The finals was two days later on Saturday. While the wind was much better my body was just not moving as I would have liked it. I am not sure why, maybe because I was nervous or maybe because my two weeks of traveling was coming to the end and I was exhausted. Either way I did not have my best performance and ended up sixth. On a positive note, I made the finals in two international Fina Grand Prix meets in a row!

10 Meter Synchronized Competition
On Saturday, the same day as finals, I also had 10 meter synchronized competition with Christina. I had about two hours between events and of course I was picked to get drug tested after my individual finals! By the time I was done with this I had to get ready to get back in the water to compete again. Anyways, everything worked out fine. Christina and I did not get to practice our synchro much before the meet, but we did a really good job winning the bronze medal! This was our first international synchro medal together!

Now I am back in Bloomington, IN taking a few days off from training. I will be starting up again soon and continue with the summer season!

2006 Canada Cup May 5-7

After a long journey to Victoria, British Columbia Christina (my team mate) and I arrived Wednesday (May 3rd) morning. We got there later than the rest of the U.S. team because we were finishing up finals and now I am done for the summer! Only three more classes to go till I have my master’s! Anyways, we had a couple of days of training and I competed in 10 meter individual on that following Friday.

10 meter individual
I did not have the best performance at the U.S. Open a couple weeks earlier so I was really excited to get another shot. So I had a solid list in prelims and ended up fourth. I was surprised at my finish because I did not do any fantastic dives, but I was consistent. A few hours later we had semifinals. The top twelve make it to semifinals and we are split into two groups. Semifinal A (the first group) consisted of the divers who finished in even places from prelims. This included second, fourth, sixth, eighth, etc… Semifinal B was the odds. I was in the first semifinal and to advance to finals I had to place in the top three. Since there were six divers in my semi that meant I had to beat three. I had a good list, not as solid as prelims, but I ended up third and advanced to finals! We again had a few hours break and our finals were later that night. By finals time it had already been a long day and I was running low on energy. I was a little nervous that I would be too tired to put in a strong performance, but when I look back on it I think it was good that I was tired because I did not have the energy to waste on being overly nervous. With six of us in finals, it turned out to be a fun time. The announcer really got the spectators pumped up and they played upbeat music between each dive. Again I had a solid list and finished third! My best individual international finish to date! I was also only 1.5 out from the Chinese diver in second. It was a great experience and it made me realize that I can do this and I do not have to have the meet of my life to be a strong competitor.

10 meter synchronized
The following day on Saturday Christina and I had 10 meter synchronized in the evening. Christina had 10 meter individual earlier in the day. She did a great job, advancing to finals, which was after our synchro event. Since she was already having a long day we kept our training before our competition to a minimum. We only warmed up two out of our five dives on 10 meter. We actually had a pretty weak list for us, but it was fun. We surprised ourselves by ending up fourth though. We have not been together for long, but I believe that we have a lot of potential.

It's been a long time...

I have not written much lately, but this time of year is more of a training period rather than competition. In mid January I competed at the U.S. Diving Selection Camp for upcoming international competitions. While this was an awkward time in the year to be competing our lists for scores I did much better than I expected. Going into this camp I was not training as much ten meter as I normal would have if it were a real meet so I really did not know what to expect of my performance. I ended up doing much better than I anticipated and it was nice confidence boast to know my training is on the right course. I was selected to go to China for its Fina Grand Prix meet, but unfortunately I had to decline.

Last week I also attended Women’s Swimming and Diving Big Ten Championships at Ohio State University. Since my collegiate eligibility has expired, I went to train with my coach and cheer on my former college teammates. I had a really great time. Until this meet I had not really missed college diving, but being there for all the excitement made me very sentimental. I feel very lucky I was able to finish my college career on such a high and also that I was able to come back this year to be part of it again.

This week Men’s Swimming and Diving Big Ten Championships will be held at Indiana University where I train. I am looking forward to watching it and also cheering on the IU guy divers. So, that is pretty much a quick summary of what I have been doing. Until next time, keep smiling :)

2005 USAS Convention

Last week I attended the 26^th United States Aquatic Sports (USAS) Convention for the first time. Last summer I was elected as an athlete representative so I was able to go to convention this year and vote on behalf of the divers. Ten athlete representatives along with about eight more junior divers attended. I felt that it was very productive and a great experience. It was great being a part of the decision-making process regarding changes to U.S. Diving. The days were very long with numerous meetings and a lot of debating, but by the end of it I think a lot was accomplished. U.S. Diving has made a lot of changes this past year and I truly believe we are finally on the right track to be a real competitive force on the international field. If you are interested in finding out more about what changes were made at convention you can go to www.usadiving.org for the minutes from the meetings.

The Conclusion of the WUG

World University Games have now finished and I am back in Bloomington. It was another fun meet and a great way to finish my summer. Turkey was an amazing country with so much culture and beauty, not to mention wonderful hospitality from its people. The last day there the diving team was able to travel to Ephesus and do some shopping. The ruins at Ephesus were unbelievable. It is hard to imagine that such an amazing town once existed there thousands of years ago. It was great to finally do some sightseeing, but it would have been nice to do a lot more. Turkey has so much to offer; hopefully I will be able to go back some day.

The evening before we left we attended the closing ceremonies. It was the time where the Turkish Federation passed the hosting of the games to Thailand by celebrating both cultures. It was a great way to cap off the whole week and focus our attention on what is to come in another two years. Hopefully I will be there. Until then, classes start next week where I continue my second year of graduate school and I will be taking a few weeks off from training.

Although I am going to be very busy for the next week, I plan on posting pictures from the meet as soon as I get a chance so come back and check them out!