Just wanted to give a shout out to my fellow divers blogging about the games. Unlike me, these people actually are in Beijing! So for a real first hand account of what's going on in China, check out...
US Diving Team 2008 Blog: This blog is on the official US Diving team website, and is updated about once every day or two by various team members and coaches.
Nancilea Foster, Women's 3m. Springboard: Nancilea was my teammate in Houston, as well as my synchronized diving partner through trials, where we were second. She finished one place ahead of me in the individual event, earning herself a place on the 2008 Olympic team. She competed prelims today (which will be televised in the US later tonight on NBC) and did great! After missing her first dive, she hit all the rest and ended up in 11th place. Her blog is here: Like me, she's also part of the Lenovo blogging program, so you'll probably also come across her posts on the main website, summergames.lenovo.com.
Mary Beth Dunnichay, Women's Platform Synchro: Mary Beth is a really talented 16 year old (maybe? She might be 15 still!) Who competed for the US in Platform Synchro on Monday. She and her Partner, Haley, finished fourth. Mary Beth is also blogging for Lenovo.
Ariel Rittenhouse, Women's 3 Meter Synchro: Ariel competed synchronized 3 meter on Tuesday with her partner, Kelci Bryant. While she's done competing for this games, she updates the blog pretty regularly, so she's a good blog if you want current information.
Laura Wilkinson, Women's 10 meter: Laura Wilkinson, in addition to being another one of my Woodlands teammates and one of my favorite people, is one of two former Olympians on the 2008 Olympic Team, and the only one on the team who has medalled before - she won a gold at the 2000 Olympics! Her blog is being hosted by a local Houston website. She'll compete on wednesday, and thursday next week, and her contests will be shown (prelims) Wednesday from 11:30am-1:30pm, (Semis) Thursday from 12:30-2:00PM, and (finals) Thursday from 8:00-12:00PM.
Anyway, if you get a chance, check out my buddies :)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Chickity China
Note: The following is based on rumor and speculation and off-the-cuff observations. It's a blog entry, not a researched article, although this is a topic I'd like to look into more... It's interesting to me how different cultures end up producing different training systems, and sometimes, different results.
I started out with a question - "Why are the chinese so darn good at diving?" and tried to figure out an answer. I also recognize that I'm not exactly treating this group of divers / athletes / people as individuals, and i'm sorry for that, but I don't have enough info. So... take it for what it is, and i apologize if it's offensive.
Ah, the Chinese. Those dang Chinese. They've won 4 out of 8 golds already like it was nothing. No events so far have even been close. If Michael Phelps were a country, and his sport was diving, he'd be China.
A little about Chinese divers:
I started out with a question - "Why are the chinese so darn good at diving?" and tried to figure out an answer. I also recognize that I'm not exactly treating this group of divers / athletes / people as individuals, and i'm sorry for that, but I don't have enough info. So... take it for what it is, and i apologize if it's offensive.
Ah, the Chinese. Those dang Chinese. They've won 4 out of 8 golds already like it was nothing. No events so far have even been close. If Michael Phelps were a country, and his sport was diving, he'd be China.
A little about Chinese divers:
Chinese divers are "discovered" in their preschools by scouts who measure everything from vertical leap to width of shoulders to parents' height. They're then shipped off to private sports schools - around the age of five or so - where they sleep 5 to a room, wake at dawn, practice basic skills (no games... no competitions), and see their parents every few months.
Unlike American kids, Chinese children do not choose their sports - they are chosen. And once they are chosen - maybe I'm wrong, and it's true that I've seen more of this on paper than in real life - they're sort of just machines for a while.
The little divers hardly touch the water for their first few years of training. They certainly don't compete - they don't even dive! They drill and drill and drill, spending days, weeks, months, years conditioning their bodies, being physically stretched past normal breaking points, and repeating the tiniest of diving motions over and over again. They are not allowed to progress until they're perfect in the basics.
(A lot of the info and ideas in this post came from the following article... You should check it out, if interested!)
In America, we place so much emphasis on winning and losing - from the beginning, we are taught to play, to have fun, to enjoy the competition, to savor the game and to believe in the power of "a little something extra." Mommy and Daddy take their kids from one team, gym, pool, or rink to the next, trying to make their little children little winners. Learning skills don't matter as much as instant success.
Kids learn to rely on raw talent rather than developed skill. Because they begin competing before they've really developed much skill, they learn to think they can win without it. They can do what "feels right" or what "they've always done" and it will carry them as far as they want. I see that in myself - I think I've at least partially learned, throughout my career, how to practice and how to value learned skills as much as my own natural strengths - but it was a hard switch to make, and it would have been easier if I'd been better at the basics from the beginning.
Dig deeper, find that mental edge, go out there and compete and surpass your wildest dreams. And never forget to have fun. Isn't that what the sports movies tell us? Be an individual, be quirky, beat the system, beat the man. Bring a little something extra to the game, or the meet, or the match, or whatever it is you do from within yourself, and that's the trick. I think that's sort of why we all like the underdog - there's something more exciting and more worthy to us about someone coming from behind and beating the guy on top than about someone good enough and solid enough to be the guy on top.
I am NOT saying that any of the athletes currently representing the US in any sport have been slacking. Our men and women have worked their butts off, sacrificed tons, and done repetitions of whatever it is they do until collapse. And it's not like we're not successful... the US team is breaking records, meeting and surpassing expectations, and winning left and right. The US athletes currently training for the games probably work just as hard as the Chinese athletes currently training for the games. But... it's not the same system. We don't have scouts in every school, conditioning from dawn til dusk at age 5, parents who are happy to ship their children (in many cases, only children... this is, after all, China...) miles and miles away for the honor of their country's sports programs, and a government that pays 100% of the expenses of all up-and-comers in the program and 1000 times that to its eventual success stories.
I like to think that we have things on our side that they don't - while they were developing bodies, our athletes were developing passions and true love for the game. The act of choosing one's own destiny - which sport to play, how much time to devote to it, what directions to travel - that has to count for something. Maybe that makes us more innovative, and more able to withstand and excel under pressure. Maybe that makes us better at winning.
As the games continue, I hope the American Team will prove me right.
Kids learn to rely on raw talent rather than developed skill. Because they begin competing before they've really developed much skill, they learn to think they can win without it. They can do what "feels right" or what "they've always done" and it will carry them as far as they want. I see that in myself - I think I've at least partially learned, throughout my career, how to practice and how to value learned skills as much as my own natural strengths - but it was a hard switch to make, and it would have been easier if I'd been better at the basics from the beginning.
Dig deeper, find that mental edge, go out there and compete and surpass your wildest dreams. And never forget to have fun. Isn't that what the sports movies tell us? Be an individual, be quirky, beat the system, beat the man. Bring a little something extra to the game, or the meet, or the match, or whatever it is you do from within yourself, and that's the trick. I think that's sort of why we all like the underdog - there's something more exciting and more worthy to us about someone coming from behind and beating the guy on top than about someone good enough and solid enough to be the guy on top.
I am NOT saying that any of the athletes currently representing the US in any sport have been slacking. Our men and women have worked their butts off, sacrificed tons, and done repetitions of whatever it is they do until collapse. And it's not like we're not successful... the US team is breaking records, meeting and surpassing expectations, and winning left and right. The US athletes currently training for the games probably work just as hard as the Chinese athletes currently training for the games. But... it's not the same system. We don't have scouts in every school, conditioning from dawn til dusk at age 5, parents who are happy to ship their children (in many cases, only children... this is, after all, China...) miles and miles away for the honor of their country's sports programs, and a government that pays 100% of the expenses of all up-and-comers in the program and 1000 times that to its eventual success stories.
I like to think that we have things on our side that they don't - while they were developing bodies, our athletes were developing passions and true love for the game. The act of choosing one's own destiny - which sport to play, how much time to devote to it, what directions to travel - that has to count for something. Maybe that makes us more innovative, and more able to withstand and excel under pressure. Maybe that makes us better at winning.
As the games continue, I hope the American Team will prove me right.
(A lot of the info and ideas in this post came from the following article... You should check it out, if interested!)
Everything but the kitchen synch
Lets see... results results results. The US was 4th in Women's 3 meter Synchro, 5th in Women's 10 meter synchro, 4th in Men's 10 meter synchro, and 4th again in men's 3 meter synchro. In three out of the four events that have happened thusfar, we were so close - within 5 points of a medal. Five points... let me put that into perspective. Five points, when you multiply by the degree of difficulty, take out highs and lows, and do all the other stuff that gets you from the judge's one-to-ten scores to the actual point total, means that if three of seven judges had scored one dive 1/2 point higher (7.5, 7.5, 7.5 instead of 7, 7, 7) we would have medaled. That's how close. Ouch!
Now there's a break, and then the individual lists. A friend of mine asked me yesterday who to watch during the rest of the diving, and after going through the list event by event "Well... you should definitely watch Women's Platform. Laura's great - she won gold in Sydney! But then... Troy in Men's 3 meter is really good and has a great shot of medaling... And so do Nancilea and Christina... And wow, David and Thomas are both really great at Men's platform..." I realized that I can't leave anyone out - US has talented, excellent divers in every event. Nearly each of the 8 divers who have yet to compete has it in them to medal. That's not saying they will... everyone probably has it in them to get nervous and mess up as well... But everyone is good enough to have a shot at it. I'm still not sure if I'll be able to watch my event - Women's 3m - without getting upset, but I am excited for our chances.
Now there's a break, and then the individual lists. A friend of mine asked me yesterday who to watch during the rest of the diving, and after going through the list event by event "Well... you should definitely watch Women's Platform. Laura's great - she won gold in Sydney! But then... Troy in Men's 3 meter is really good and has a great shot of medaling... And so do Nancilea and Christina... And wow, David and Thomas are both really great at Men's platform..." I realized that I can't leave anyone out - US has talented, excellent divers in every event. Nearly each of the 8 divers who have yet to compete has it in them to medal. That's not saying they will... everyone probably has it in them to get nervous and mess up as well... But everyone is good enough to have a shot at it. I'm still not sure if I'll be able to watch my event - Women's 3m - without getting upset, but I am excited for our chances.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
It's here!
The Olympics are happening! I'm so excited for my teammates in Beijing right now. Kelci and Ariel competed yesterday (or... I mean.. I guess, technically, it's called today. The International Date Line always weirds me out a little). They did great! The team was fourth, just missing a medal. I'm proud of them. They're seventeen and eighteen, this is their first Olympics, and they competed like calm, steady, seasoned pros. I'd say "Better luck in four years... they'll really be ready to win then!" but they're my competition, so I won't go overboard with the compliments :)
Next up... Men's synchronize 10 meter, Tomorrow (Today? Yesterday? August 11, whenever that is.) at 2:30PM, chinatime. I have a feeling that Thomas and David are going to do really well. Each of them is a spectacular individual diver, and they've been training together almost since they started, so they're very good at the synchro part of it as well. They won this event at the 2007 Pan-Am games (which included athletes from North, South, and Central America) and they've earned bronze medals at several major world competitions.
Go team!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Tara update
Here's the latest on Tara's situation. I'd paraphrase it, but I think she can tell you in her own words better than I can: Tara's Blog
Thursday, July 31, 2008
disclaimer, of sorts
I feel a little silly sometimes, still writing this blog for the lenovo summer games site when I am, in actuality, not at the summer games. I'm torn. I don't mean for this blog to sound like a pity party at all - i hope it doesn't. On the other hand... If I'm to write about the journey, then this is part of it, too. Not the fun part, and probably not the part that people really want to read about, but still, it's the journey. The aftermath, good or bad, is still part of the experience. In a way, it's I guess it goes back to my original reasons for writing (As it says on my profile page on the summergames.lenovo.com site):
That hasn't really changed. So I write on...
One of the reasons I read other peoples’ blogs is to experience and understand things that I don’t see in my own life. I’m hoping that my blog will give other people a sense of what I do, and what it means to be an elite level diver training to compete on the biggest stage in the world. I’m very grateful for the chance to spend my time doing what I love, and I appreciate the chance to share my experiences with others.
That hasn't really changed. So I write on...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Team Sendoff
A lot can happen in a few weeks.
I moved from Texas to California, landed a job, began my temporary retirement, and started work at the Stanford Alumni Association.
My Olympian friends came home from Trials, got back to work, competed at nationals, and left for the Olympics.
They were all here yesterday. All the diving team members went through a day-and-a-half of processing (that is, getting official outfitting, final medical evaluations, media meetings, China briefs, etc.) at San Jose State. Since (from what I've been told) San Jose State's only diving board is more like a chunk of wood painted green, they came yesterday morning to practice at Stanford. I walked over before work (the Alumni Association Building is visible from the 10 meter tower) to see my friends.
There I was, in business clothes. Coaches kept saying how different I looked... Kenny (the Woodlands coach) made a predictable joke about how he hardly recognized me with my clothes on. There I was, in fancy shoes, slacks, jewelry, make-up... I can probably count on my hands the number of times I wore any of those things in the last year. Now it's daily uniform.
And there they were... Nancilea and Laura and David stretching on my mat, Thomas getting spotted on my trampoline, Kelci and Christina on my dryland boards. All of them talking and laughing because they share something, or rather, they know they are about to share something - the experience. Representing the US team at the Olympic Games.
It was hard - to be honest, it was one of the hardest moments since Trials. All these people I've competed against and fought with and learned to love over the last four years... and they're still diving, getting ready for the biggest show of their lives... and me, not so much.
Last night after work I went to San Jose State and hung out with Laura and Nancilea and the other girls in their dorm. They were all exhausted from the day's work - practice, meetings, collecting stuff, shipping boxes home. There were posters and big signs on poles up all over campus - They showed athletes competing. "Amazing Awaits," they said. I passed some weight lifters walking around the compound and rode the elevator up with a baseball coach. Everyone was wearing their new gear. It was fabulous to be able to talk with my friends, and wish them luck. I hope they do really really great. I sincerely do. They are fabulous athletes, and I want them to go out there and show their best.
They left early this morning on a direct flight from SFO to Beijing. They'll be there soon, if not already. Soon they'll be checking into the athlete village. Tomorrow, the Water Cube. I still just can't get over how much can change in 3 weeks.
I moved from Texas to California, landed a job, began my temporary retirement, and started work at the Stanford Alumni Association.
My Olympian friends came home from Trials, got back to work, competed at nationals, and left for the Olympics.
They were all here yesterday. All the diving team members went through a day-and-a-half of processing (that is, getting official outfitting, final medical evaluations, media meetings, China briefs, etc.) at San Jose State. Since (from what I've been told) San Jose State's only diving board is more like a chunk of wood painted green, they came yesterday morning to practice at Stanford. I walked over before work (the Alumni Association Building is visible from the 10 meter tower) to see my friends.
There I was, in business clothes. Coaches kept saying how different I looked... Kenny (the Woodlands coach) made a predictable joke about how he hardly recognized me with my clothes on. There I was, in fancy shoes, slacks, jewelry, make-up... I can probably count on my hands the number of times I wore any of those things in the last year. Now it's daily uniform.
And there they were... Nancilea and Laura and David stretching on my mat, Thomas getting spotted on my trampoline, Kelci and Christina on my dryland boards. All of them talking and laughing because they share something, or rather, they know they are about to share something - the experience. Representing the US team at the Olympic Games.
It was hard - to be honest, it was one of the hardest moments since Trials. All these people I've competed against and fought with and learned to love over the last four years... and they're still diving, getting ready for the biggest show of their lives... and me, not so much.
Last night after work I went to San Jose State and hung out with Laura and Nancilea and the other girls in their dorm. They were all exhausted from the day's work - practice, meetings, collecting stuff, shipping boxes home. There were posters and big signs on poles up all over campus - They showed athletes competing. "Amazing Awaits," they said. I passed some weight lifters walking around the compound and rode the elevator up with a baseball coach. Everyone was wearing their new gear. It was fabulous to be able to talk with my friends, and wish them luck. I hope they do really really great. I sincerely do. They are fabulous athletes, and I want them to go out there and show their best.
They left early this morning on a direct flight from SFO to Beijing. They'll be there soon, if not already. Soon they'll be checking into the athlete village. Tomorrow, the Water Cube. I still just can't get over how much can change in 3 weeks.
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