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Olympian Kimiko Soldati captures
national 3-meter diving title
By Steven Serafini
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Adam Soldati, a 1992 Sonoma Valley High
School graduate (right, left photo) and his wife Kimiko are seen at
their 2000 wedding in Sonoma. In the right photo, Kimiko - a member of
the United States Olympic Diving Team that is currently in Athens for
the 2004 Olympic Games - finishes off a dive during an earlier
competition. Submitted photos |
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7.30.04 -- Sonoma Valley High School (SVHS) 1992 graduate
Adam Soldati's wife, Kimiko Hirai Soldati, recently earned a spot on the United
States Olympic diving team and in a final tuneup for the 2004 Olympic Games, she
added another national title to her impressive athletic resumé.
With approximately 125 of the best divers in the country - including the newly
named members of the 2004 Olympic diving team - competing in the U.S. National
Diving Championships at SoCal's Mission Viejo last weekend, Soldati won the
national 3-meter springboard diving title. She topped Chelsea Davis in the
finals by a score of 515.04-502.23.
Along with Olympic diving coach, Kenny Armstrong, Soldati and
her teammates flew to Athens for the Summer Games yesterday.
When the Olympic diving competition takes place on Wednesday and Thursday, Aug.
25 and 26, Kimiko will be joined by husband Adam, who was with her at the U.S.
National Diving Championships in Mission Viejo as the Woodlands Diving Team's
junior division head coach.
Adam had six of his young divers competing in the U.S.
nationals' 16-to-18 age-group, with his talented 15-year-old diver and possible
future Olympian K.K. Kinzback - going against Olympic divers - claiming an
impressive fifth-place finish. His Woodlands teams have won two Junior National
titles and produced four individual champions.
The Soldatis met and became good friends at Indiana University 10 years ago,
where they were both star divers for the school's teams, and they were married
in May of 2000 (in Sonoma) and joined the Woodlands Diving Team - a renowned
private club located in The Woodlands, Texas, just north of Houston - that same
year.
With Adam settling in as the Woodlands junior division coach,
Kimiko had just began training under Woodlands' senior division and U.S. Diving
team coach Armstrong and barely missed qualifying for the 2000 Olympics. But
four years later, Kimiko - who at 30 is the oldest member of the U.S. Olympic
diving team - has thrived under Armstrong's coaching and is now at the top of
her sport and one of the favorites to win an Olympic medal.
Kimiko has been featured in Sports Illustrated, appears in Speedo ads, the July
issue of Vogue magazine, the Aug. 2 issue of People magazine, and is on the
cover of Christian Women Magazine's August issue.
While at Indiana
University, Kimiko won the 1996 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association)
diving title on the 1-meter board and was named the 1996 NCAA Athlete of the
Year. She also was honored as the 2002 USOC (United States Olympic Committee)
Diver of the Year and the 2001-02 USA Diving Diver of the Year.
Adam's coaching career began as
Indiana University's
assistant diving coach and the Indiana Diving Age Group Club's head coach. As a
competitive diver, Adam was a prep league champion diver for the SVHS Dragons,
won the state junior college diving title while at Santa Rosa Junior College,
and was a standout scholarship diver for Indiana University.
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