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Grateful Soldati is a portrait of Olympic dream
By Bryan
Burwell
Of the
Post-Dispatch
06/12/2004
They
were all around Kimiko Soldati like so many precious touchstones. Her dead
mother's wedding band, a dripping ice pack, a crystal champion's trophy and
fragrant floral bouquet, and now, at long last, a gleaming golden Olympian's
ring. Each one was a rather personal reminder of the triumphs and tragedies
along her rather long and eventful Olympic journey.
As she stood there with tears welling up in her eyes moments after the
30-year-old diver had secured her spot on the U.S. Olympic team with a thrilling
victory in the women's 3-meter springboard finals, Soldati slowly began to
retrace her long and winding road to Athens.
"It's beyond words, it really is," said the first-time Olympian as she stood
amidst the fragrant potted geraniums in the press room. "I feel grateful, that's
the one word to sum it up. To be even standing here, considering my career ...
my frustrations. Lots of athletes go through these things and hit obstacles, but
it's the champions who turn it around and make them opportunities."
It's easy to forget sometimes that the Olympics are not really all about
corporate logos, terrorist threats, jingoistic patriotism and millionaire
professional athletes dabbling in the Olympic movement. We forget sometimes that
the Olympics aren't all about drug cheats and law suits. We forget sometimes
that the Olympics are really about - or ought to be about - are stories like
Kimiko Soldati's.
How can anyone resist a story like this? She is not only the Olympic Dream, she
is the American Dream, too.
We can begin with the American Dream. Kimiko Hirai Soldati is of
Japanese-American descent, the daughter of a father who in February 1945 was
born in a World War II internment camp, even though both his parents had been
born here and his grandparents had moved to the U.S. decades before the war.
On Saturday afternoon, Soldati's father, Gary Hirai, was in the stands at the
Rec-Plex with his 89-year-old mother and a large contingent of family members
passionately rooting on Kimiko, even if at times, none of them understood why
she kept on diving.
The only relative who was not in the stands was her late mother, who died when
Kimiko was in high school. But her mother was symbolically in the pool with
Kimiko. She wears her mother's white gold wedding band, which is her wedding
band now, on her right hand when she dives.
As Soldati told this story, a cold ice pack iced down her surgically-repaired
right shoulder that had repeatedly threatened to derail her Olympic Dream.
"Four surgeries on that shoulder," Soldati said, pointing to the ice pack. "Two
in the last 18 months (another surgery was done on her knee as a result of a
gymnastics injury). I originally hurt it in 1996 when I was at Indiana
University. I dove off the 10-meter platform when I didn't know what I was
doing. I should never have dove in the first place, but when I hit the water, my
right arm was in the wrong position, got jerked behind my head and ripped my
biceps off the bone. So they had to repair that twice. And then there was the
rotator cuff surgery and all kinds of other stuff. I really shouldn't have been
up there."
After all those injuries, a three-year, injury-related hiatus and one failed
Olympic attempt in 2000, it's hard to imagine how she ever ended up standing
amidst the geraniums.
"I know people look at me and wonder, 'Why do you keep coming back, surgery
after surgery after surgery?'" Soldati said. "Well, it's easy. I have a fire and
passion for my dream and I knew I hadn't begun to reach my potential."
On Saturday afternoon, her potential was reached, but not without a little
drama. Soldati held a commanding lead going into the finals, but on her second
dive, she nearly did a crash and burn. It was an awful dive, and instead of the
70-plus scores she had been receiving all competition, she got a shocking 38.70,
which dropped her into second place behind Rachelle Kunkel.
First place gets you to Athens. Second place only gets you a bunch of flowers
and a ton of tears. Over the next two jumps, she sneaked back into first by less
than two points heading into the final round.
But her last dive was strong, and she knew it the moment she hit the water.
And as she popped up out of the water, one of the first people there to meet her
was her best friend, synchronized diving partner and 2000 Olympian Laura
Wilkinson, who had a special surprise gift for her: Wilkinson's gold Olympic
ring.
"Isn't that so cool?" Soldati said, showing off her new jewelry. "She put it on
me right after I got out of the pool, which was so wonderful. I guess it's some
tradition where you get the ring (from a former Olympian) when you make the
team, then pass it on to the next person to make it. Eventually, I'll get my own
ring, and I'll give this one back to Laura. In fact, I'll probably give it back
to her tonight."
As she looked at the gleaming ring and dreamed of earning some more substantial
Olympic hardware, Soldati reflected on her hard road to glory.
"I hope what I've done gives hope to all athletes out there that dreams can come
true," she said. "You work so hard, you have a passion for it, then leave it to
God, amazing things can happen."
E-mail: bburwell@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8185
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