KIMIKO
HIRAI SOLDATI
OFFICIAL SITE
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OFFICIAL SITE |
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About Kimiko
Photo's by Ken Redmond DIVING
Academics
History Kimiko was born in Longmont, Colorado and began her athletic career as a gymnast until a knee injury ended her Olympic dream. The dream never died, she just had to switch sports. After one year of knee rehabilitation, her dad suggested the sport of diving. Kimiko tried out for the high school diving team not knowing someday she would be performing for the entire world. Unfortunately, the summer before her senior year in high school, Kimiko lost her mom to breast cancer. Judy battled the disease for 8 years and it finally took over her body in July, 1991. The same year, Morry Arbini, the head diving coach at Colorado State University saw Kimiko diving and recruited her to dive for CSU in college. Kimiko did not even realize that there was diving in college much less diving to represent her country. She signed with CSU and began diving 3 Meter her freshman year. The summer of 1994 Kimiko transferred to Indiana University to train with Jeff Huber and finish her education. After one year of red shirting, Kimiko qualified for the 1996 NCAA Championships for the first time and she went on to become the 1 Meter NCAA Champion. Kimiko injured her shoulder in 1995 and had to undergo a serious shoulder surgery by her doctor, Ben Rubin of California. She never lost her fire to compete or the desire to push harder to realize her potential. Finally, in December of 1998 she was back in the pool at 100% and she was more determined than ever to get back on top of the nation. She began to dive 10 Meter platform the summer of 1999. Kimiko became the first female in US Diving's history to qualify for finals in all five events at the National Championships. In November of 2000, Kimiko decided to move to The Woodlands, Texas to train with Olympic coach Kenny Armstrong who coached the Gold Medal Olympic Champion Laura Wilkinson. She moved down to Texas and her husband, Adam, followed 2 months later. The move and a new coach proved to be successful. At the 2001 Spring National Diving Championships, Kimiko became the National Champion on 1 Meter and earned two Silver Medals on 3 Meter and 10 Meter tower. These performances qualified her for her first major international competitions, the World Championships and Goodwill Games. In September 2001, Kimiko shocked the world by winning a bronze medal for the United States on 3 Meter springboard at the Goodwill Games. The media had said that women's springboard was the least likely event to earn a medal for the United States. It ended up being the sole medal the US brought home. In 2002 Kimiko went to the World Cup and won a silver medal in the 10 meter platform. She also made the finals in her other 3 events finishing in the top 5 of all 3. That summer at the national championships, Kimiko won her first National title on 3 meter springboard. She then had to undergo another surgery on her shoulder and was out of competition for over a year. She then had a follow up surgery in September 2003 on the same shoulder. She resumed training in the winter of 2003 to get ready for the Olympic trials in June of 2004. Kimiko decided to try platform again and qualified for the World Cup with partner Laura Wilkinson on 10 meter synchronized and brought home a spot for the Olympic Games. She also made the World Cup in 3 meter and 3 meter synchronized with Erin Quinn. The pair finished well in the finals, but because Greece gets a bye into the competition, the US was bumped from the finals. After that disappointment, Kimiko decided to train platform again in February of 2004 and qualified for other international meets. In June of 2004 Kimiko's dream began to materialize as she qualified for the 2004 Olympic Games on the 3 meter. Kimiko's Olympic performance wasn't what she had hoped or dreamed about. Her shoulder caused a lot of problems and pain and she was unable to train leading up to her event. She underwent many (5) cortizone shots to deal with the pain but the toll of not training and the pain took hold and she didn't perform up to her potential at the Games. With her faith, she was strong and gave it her all and showed great character and integrity in dealing with such adversity. She is now able to share her experiences with others in hopes of inspiring and encouraging others to believe in their dreams and to see that going for the gold means more than winning medals. She is sharing her story through speaking and possibly a book. She still holds on to one of her favorite scriptures: Mark 9:23- Everything is possible for him who believes! When storms of life rage and the ground beneath your feet dissolves there are lessons to be learned by paddling harder, believing you can make it, and not letting deep waters keep you from diving into life. |
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Forename: Kimiko
