Two days til Indy!

Two days til I leave for trials. TWO DAYS. I seem to have written a ton of catch-up emails to friends and family over the last week, and I always have to emphasize the countdown - SIX DAYS til trials... FIVE DAYS... FOUR DAYS... you get the idea. It's ridiculously soon! Indianapolis, Here I Come!

This is my second Olympic trials, but my first serious chance at making the team. It's amazing to look at how much my life has changed, and how far I've come, since then. I was a freshman at Stanford in 2004. I had just finished my freshman year when I competed at the last trials - In fact I emailed in my last final paper two days before I competed! In 2004, I surprised myself by moving on from the Spring Nationals qualifying meet to Nationals... then I surprised myself again by finaling at Nationals and qualifying, at the last possible opportunity, to Olympic Trials... Then I surprised myself again by making it through the prelims and semifinals of Olympic Trials to the finals! In the end I was 8th, and I was happy with that.

I won't be happy with 8th this time around. I've improved so much in the last four years. Since 2004, I've come into my own as a diver, won some national championships, upped the difficulty of my list, and gained a ton of confidence. I graduated from school last spring and moved down here, to The Woodlands, Texas a few months later. Rick, my coach from Stanford, came down here to continue training me as soon as his college season was over in April. My training situation in Texas couldn't be better - I get to train full-time with my synchronized diving partner, Nancilea, who lives here, along with eight other divers currently training for Olympic Trials (more than anywhere else in the country!). Plus, I get to have the coach who has gotten me to where I am, who knows my diving inside and out, and who knows exactly what to say and do to make my dives better.

Anyway, I compete at Trials next week, and I'm really starting to feel ready. I injured myself in February and couldn't get back in the water again until early april, and at times it's felt like the comeback process has been very long, and very slow. I've really only felt like myself again in the last week or two. Dives that were easy for me before the injury are easy again, and I finally feel free to concentrate on "the last six feet" before I hit the water. (In diving, entering the water with no splash is the most important part of the dive. You can jump as high and spin as fast as you want, but if you make too much spash on the entry, you won't get a good score. Thus, "the last six feet" are very important!) Anyway, every day in the past week has been better than the one before it. Ready or not, Trials, here I come!