KIMIKO
HIRAI SOLDATI
OFFICIAL SITE
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OFFICIAL SITE |
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Soldati Wins Spot on
Olympic Diving Team ST. PETERS, Mo. - Kimiko Soldati isn't over the hill. In fact, she's just getting started. Soldati bounced back from a poor dive to earn her first trip to the Olympics, winning 3-meter springboard at the U.S. trials Saturday with a stirring finish. Not bad for the oldest competitor at the trials. Soldati is a 30-year-old former gymnast who didn't start diving seriously until a dozen years ago and overcame numerous injuries to claim her ticket for Athens. "I certainly made it interesting, didn't I?" Soldati quipped. Soldati had the top score in the preliminaries and was still on top after the opening dive of the finals. Her next attempt was ugly, however. She over-rotated on an inward pike 2 1/2 somersault, creating a huge splash as she sliced through the water. The crowd groaned and the scores confirmed their assessment - 4s and 4.5s that dropped her into second place behind Rachelle Kunkel. Michelle Davison, a 2000 Olympian, was charging, too. She was just 7.2 points behind Soldati with three dives remaining. "I missed that dive, but I was OK with it," said Soldati, a Colorado native who now lives in Texas. "I thought about it for about 30 seconds. That's it. Then it was time to move on. I told myself there was nothing I could do about it." Soldati, who passed time between dives listening to the Usher song "Yeah!" on her headphones, took that advice to heart. Her last three dives were on the mark, closing with a reverse pike 2 1/2 somersault that drew 8s across the board except for one 7.5. Soldati finished with 884.70 points, while Kunkel locked up her first trip to the Olympics by finishing second at 874.38. Davison settled for third at 870.60 - just 3.78 points out of a return trip to the Games. She was 12th in the springboard at Sydney.
Soldati was a top-level gymnast in high school, but the first of her injuries - a torn knee ligament - prompted her father to encourage a switch to diving. She finally got serious about it as a freshman at Colorado State, where she competed on the 3-meter board for the first time. But a steady string of injuries slowed Soldati's progress. In all, she's had four shoulder surgeries and two knee operations. "I'm not amazed she pulled it off, but I'm amazed she got to this point," said her husband, Adam. "I know that day in, day out is a constant struggle. There are days she gets out of bed and can't even move her arms." For Kimiko, it was all worthwhile. "It's been an enormous struggle just to get here," she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "I've hit a lot of obstacles, but champions turn them into opportunities." Soldati's father, Gary Hirai, was born in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans during the closing months of World War II. He was there on Saturday, cheering on his daughter with about 30 family and friends, thrilled that she'll be representing the country that once locked up his parents. "It's just neat," Hirai said. "It all fits together perfectly, as far as I'm concerned." Soldati's mother, Judy Hirai, died in 1992 after a long struggle with breast cancer. Her influence was evident at the trials - from her wedding ring, which Soldati wears while diving, to her daughter's indomitable will. "My wife was so strong and so focused on not complaining while she was sick. She just wanted to do the best she could," Gary Hirai said. "That carried over to our daughter." Another spot on the Olympic team was being decided Saturday night: men's 10-meter platform. Caesar Garcia led after the prelims. June 12, 2004 7:06 PM |
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