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Head First
Olympic athlete Kimiko Hirai Soldati is diving toward the ultimate prize.
The tower stands eye to eye with a four-story building. The ladder behind
it rises vertically and empties onto a narrow ledge. Rung by rung, hand
over hand, Kimiko Hirai Soldati climbs to the top. With swift steps, she
approaches the edge. Her toes tickle the rim; the rest of her body remains
motionless. At the bottom, the placid water awaits.
Looking down would cause vertigo, so Kimiko looks straight ahead. The
only sound is a breeze drifting past her ears, whispering, ‘Jump!’
A slight bend at the knees is the only warning she gives before launching
herself into the air. Twisting, turning, flying, Kimiko spirals down the 10
meters to the surface, slicing through the water with surgical precision at
35 miles per hour.
A couple of powerful strokes to the side of the pool, and Kimiko can see
that U.S. Olympic dive team coach, Kenny Armstrong, is smiling. Her 3 1/2
back somersault from the tuck position was perfect. If she can do that in
Athens, he says, she just might bring home Olympic Gold.
That’s precisely what Kimiko hopes to do during the Olympic games in
Athens next month. After years of preparation and training, Kimiko has the
opportunity she’s been waiting for all her life — a chance at the Gold. But
while this has been a lifelong dream, the road leading up to it hasn’t been
what anyone expected.
An Unforeseen Beginning | As a child, Kimiko Hirai had more energy tucked
into her petite body than her parents, Gary and Judy, knew what to do with.
To keep her from bouncing off the walls of their Denver, Colo. home, the
Hirais enrolled their rambunctious pre-schooler in a gymnastics program. A
few years later, in 1984, 10-year-old Kimiko watched a pint-sized dynamo
named Mary Lou Retton bounce, twist, jump, vault, and balance her way to an
Olympic Gold Medal. Four more years, she thought, and it will be my turn.
What started as an attempt to burn off excess energy developed into a young
woman’s burning desire to compete in the Olympics.
“God blessed me with a tremendous amount of athletic talent,” Kimiko says
humbly. “And I’ve always been driven, always striving for as much as I can
accomplish. There’s something in me that has always wanted to reach this
pinnacle. The Olympic dream — how much bigger can you get?”
From devastation to obsession | Kimiko’s dream of competing in the 1988
Games in Seoul were shattered — along with her right knee — when a botched
dismount from a balance beam routine sent her into career-ending
reconstructive surgery.
“Everything I’d dreamed of came to a screeching halt, she says. “I didn’t
know what to do. I was extremely committed to gymnastics. My life was
consumed with it. And now I was being told I was never going to be able to
do gymnastics again.”
Always the pragmatist, Gary Hirai pointed Kimiko toward diving, a sport
that incorporated the grace and agility of gymnastics, but without the
constant pressure on her knee. Kimiko agreed, but without the full
dedication she had shown in gymnastics — at least not at first.
“Diving was fun, but it was just OK,” she says. “But as I continued to
train, that competitive personality took over. I threw myself into it to
the point of actually crossing the line from discipline and commitment into
obsession.”
motivated by life | Kimiko’s determination resulted in a scholarship offer
from Colorado State University (CSU). But her accomplishment was tempered
by the agony of personal loss. Judy Hirai, Kimiko’s mother, lost an
eight-year battle with breast cancer the summer before Kimiko’s senior year
in high school.
Kimiko will be the first to correct the notion that her athletic drive has
been motivated by her mother’s death. Instead, she says, it’s her mother’s
life that has motivated her.
“My mom battled breast cancer,” Kimiko says. “I mean, she battled it. She
never felt sorry for herself, and she made our lives pretty normal even
though she was being absolutely crippled by this disease. Losing her was so
difficult. I didn’t understand it, and I was angry with God, even though I
didn’t know Him at the time. But I learned by watching her that you can’t
take anything for granted — not one day, not one relationship. You have to
get the most out of it that you can.”
Realizing she was only scratching the surface of her potential as a diver,
Kimiko transferred from CSU to the nationally recognized program at Indiana
University (IU), red-shirting for a year while she re-learned her sport
from the ground up. Her coach, Jeff Huber, introduced Kimiko to the
exhilaration of diving from the 10-meter platform — 33 feet above water.
need new subhead | “It was high. It was scary. And I loved it! But I really
didn’t know what I was doing, and I probably shouldn’t have been doing some
of the dives I was doing,” she says in hindsight.
While diving from the 10 meter platform during her first year of
competition at IU, Kimiko hit the water slightly askew. Her right arm
jerked behind her head, tearing the tendons in her shoulder. But her
competitive nature, combined with a high tolerance for pain, drove her
forward. She refused medical attention and continued to dive, earning an
NCAA championship in the 1-meter springboard. The pain refused to subside,
however, and during the 1996 Olympic trials, the team doctor took one look
and declared, “You need surgery — now!”
“I was devastated,” Kimiko says. “I felt like I was just getting started —
just starting to train, just starting to understand the sport — and once
again it was ripped away from me. I didn’t have a very good balance in my
life at that time. I defined my self-worth by my diving, so when it was
taken away from me, I fell apart. I battled an eating disorder, went
through depression, and found ways and substances to mask that depression,
to try to deal with the loss.”
After nine months of physical therapy, Kimiko attempted a comeback, but the
pain persisted. She discovered that another torn tendon in her shoulder
would require surgery. Nine more months of rehab left her without an
appreciable reduction in pain, and the doctor ordered her to take another
six months off.
“Looking back, I know that God had a plan, and He brought me through all
those things for a reason. But at the time I was frustrated,” Kimiko
confesses. “Three years of being away from the sport that I loved! I wanted
so badly to be a part of it, but I just couldn’t.”
It was during this period of frustration and self-doubt that Kimiko began a
deepening relationship with teammate Adam Soldati.
“I asked her how she was doing,” Adam says. “And she knew that I really
meant it. I was one of the first people she talked to about it. … I just
listened. She needed somebody that wasn’t going to judge her, who wasn’t
going to be critical, but was just going to listen.”
Back on the boards | Through a combination of counseling, physical therapy,
and sheer guts, Kimiko began diving again in January 1999, starting slowly
on the 3-meter springboard. But the 10-meter platform continued its siren
call, and by the end of the year she was back on it. She trained intensely
for the upcoming 2000 Games, but the combination of shoulder surgeries and
forced three-year sabbatical had taken its toll. Kimiko failed to qualify
in the trials. Undeterred, she continued to train and compete, and by the
end of the year she was the No. 2 ranked diver in the world.
The new millennium brought a number of changes for Kimiko. In May 2000 she
and Adam married, and within six months the newlyweds packed up and moved
south to The Woodlands near Houston, Texas, where Kimiko began training
under legendary U.S. national team coach, Kenny Armstrong.
Taking a leap of faith | When they moved to Texas, Adam and Kimiko lived
with family friends while looking for a place of their own, and more out of
a sense of obligation than desire, they agreed to attend church with their
hosts.
“My journey to faith is funny because the way that I grew up was so
opposite of what faith involves,” Kimiko explains. “I was very
self-reliant, very self-dependent. For me, faith was something for weak
people, but when we went with them to church, my eyes were opened.
“I was like, ‘Wow! This is cool. This is different. This isn’t what I
thought religion was.’
“They gave me a Bible, and I read it from beginning to end. I did a lot of
investigating for myself — I had a tough time believing who Jesus was and
why He did what He did. I met with my pastor, just drilling him with
questions. The more I investigated, the softer my heart became, but I still
had a hard time making that final commitment to Christ.
“For about three months I just sat on my hands at the end of service. It
was such a difficult step for me to say, ‘I’m not in control. I can’t make
everything happen.’ I finally had to be honest with myself and say, ‘I do
need help. I can’t do this alone.’”
Adam came to faith in Christ about the same time, but Kimiko says his
journey was a little less convoluted than her own. “He looked at
Christianity and said, ‘Well, of course,’” Kimiko laughs. “Now we’re both
growing in Christ, and our marriage has been blessed because of it. I don’t
know how people can possibly make it in a marriage without faith.”
“We were both very motivated before we accepted Christ,” Adam adds. “But
without Christ there was no purpose behind it. Now with the Lord in our
lives there’s so much peace, so much serenity.”
a labor of love | Adam left a satisfying position as assistant coach at
Indiana University when the couple moved to Texas. Putting his business
degree to use, Adam worked for a management consultant firm while waiting
for an opportunity to return to coaching. That opportunity came when coach
Armstrong asked him to handle the age group program at the Woodlands Diving
Team. Now Adam works for the consulting firm in the morning and coaches in
the afternoon.
“It makes for long hours,” Adam admits. “But for now it’s supplying
financially for what we need, so I’m not complaining.”
“Adam’s gifting is in coaching,” Kimiko notes. “He’s so good with these
kids, and he’s very secure in himself. He never feels threatened or
uncomfortable that I’m going for this dream or that I’m the one in the
spotlight. He’s very humble and supportive of me. He’s my rock. With my
personality I can get a little extreme, and he helps me keep my feet on the
ground and keep things in perspective. I couldn’t be more grateful.
“I love the fact that my husband has as much passion about diving as I do.
We both speak the same language, and most of all, he understands the
sacrifices I have to make to achieve this Olympic dream. I couldn’t train
the way I need to if it weren’t for my husband.”
fixed on the prize | Kimiko is intently awaiting her shot in 2004 Olympic
Games. While she underwent another surgery this past September to clean up
some scar tissue, Kimiko remains focused on the goal.
With her faith has come a new perspective on life. “When I was told last
summer that I was going to have yet another shoulder surgery, I thought,
Here we go again. But I’m so grateful for the peace I have this time. I
know who I am in Christ, and I know that diving isn’t who I am — it’s what
I do.”
While Kimiko may be the U.S. diving team’s best hope for Olympic Gold, she
has her sights set on a bigger prize, promised in Philippians 3:13-14.
Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, she
pursues as her goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ
Jesus.
Brian Smith
graphic designer
HomeLife magazine
One LifeWay Plaza
Nashville, TN 37234-0175
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brian.smith@lifeway.com
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