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Magnolia's Kimiko
Soldati's performance en route to wining the women's 3-meter springboard at the
2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Diving was the perfect display of the fighting
spirit she has shown throughout her diving career. The 30-year-old veteran of
the USA Diving Centralized Training Center Team has fought to overcome four
shoulder surgeries over five years in order to dive at the Trials.
The springboard event was
also a battle for Soldati. Coming into the finals, Soldati led Rachelle Kunkel
by almost 20 points, with 2000 Olympian Michelle Davison seven points behind
Kunkel in third. Davison, Kunkel and Soldati were in a tight competition for the
two spots on the U.S. Olympic Team throughout the finals.
Soldati struggled on her
second dive in the finals and dropped to second place behind Kunkel. But Soldati
didn't linger on the mistakes and performed three more solid dives to win the
contest by 10 points over Kunkel.
"Any athlete goes through obstacles," Soldati said. "It's the champions that
turn them around and make them opportunities."
Soldati finished with 884.70 points to Kunkel's 874.38 points. Both women earned
spots on the U.S. Olympic Team with their one, two finish.
Soldati, who listened to the song "Yea" by Usher between dives today, said she
was "juiced" for the competition.
"I felt like King Kong on the board. I felt really strong."
Unfortunately some of her strength caused her to over-rotate and score 4's and
4.5's on her second dive, an inward 2 somersaults.
"I missed it but I handled it really well," Soldati said. "I wasn't worried
about it. I knew I could come back."
Soldati was competing after a disappointing night on Thursday when she did not
make the Olympic Team is women's platform synchro with teammate Laura Wilkinson.
But on her last dive of the night, with around 30 family members in the
audience, Soldati took everything in and was determined she would make the
Olympic team.
"I thought, 'Oh cool! I'm going to hit this and I'm going to make an Olympic
team.' "
Soldati said that she wasn't sure that she had won the event until she looked at
her coach Kenny Armstrong.
"I hit the dive and I came out of the water and I saw Kenny come out of his
chair, I knew and I turned to my family and pointed at them and blew kisses to
them because my support system is awesome," she said. "I wouldn't be here if it
weren't for my husband and my family and my church and my friends, but mostly I
wouldn't be here if it weren't for the grace of God."
Davison scored the highest in the finals, scoring 8's and 9's on her last two
dives, but it wasn't enough to overcome 25-year-old Kunkel, who finished almost
four points ahead of her. Fourth place finisher Nancilea Underwood, a graduate
of Oak Ridge High School also performed well, earning 8.5's and 9's on her last
dive, a forward 2 somersaults with 1 twist.
Soldati, who was a gymnast until she was 18-years-old and had to undergo total
knee reconstruction, said her Olympic berth is a little different than she
imagined it would be when she was younger.
"My dream since I was a little girl, like any athlete, was to go to the
Olympics, but I always thought it was going to be gymnastics," she said. "I had
no idea God had another plan and got me into the sport of diving."
Later Saturday at the Rec-Plex Center in St. Peters, Mo., two local teenagers
finished in the top ten in the men's platform final. The Woodlands Diving Team's
Harrison Jones finished eighth with 897.81 points while his teammate J.J.
Kinzbach of Montgomery placed tenth with 895.50 points.
Auburn University's Caesar Garcia won the event and secured his spot on the
Olympic team as he garnered 1,157.94 points. Thomas Finchum, a 14-year old from
Indianapolis, finished second with 1,062.09 points.
Justin Dumais of the Centralized Training Center in The Woodlands finished
fourth with 1,010.67 points.
The Olympic Trials conclude today with the women's platform finals. 2000 Olympic
gold medalist Laura Wilkinson of The Woodlands is in first place heading into
the finals and will try to earn a chance at defending her medal. Recent TWHS
graduate Jessica Livingston sits in second place while Soldati is in fourth.
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