So what happened on Wednesday February 22 in London? Chris Colwill finished ninth in 3M and Amy Cozad and Laura Ryan were tenth in women's 10M synchro. Colwill's finish could have been better, but his goal was to get to semifinals and qualify the U.S. for a men's springboard Olympic spot, and he did that. He accomplished the goal, gives himself a chance to get back the London Aquatic Centre in July and got a peak at what to expect when, and if he returns.
That peak was probably a little scary as the top five in men's 3m all scored over 500 points with He Chong winning with 553.35. To get to the podium you not only can't miss, but you need to be "el fuego!" But if I am Chris or any other of the U.S. divers, I would rather know to what level I need to dive than to have my head stuck in the sand.
The women's synchro finish was a bit disappointing as the U.S. will not be sending a platform synchro team to the Olympics. Put in perspective though, the team did relatively well for their first major international contest together. The two finished sixth at the Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but that was on home soil - this was not. It's not that they didn't appear to have a chance either. It is a bit hard to get an accurate picture of what happened since the only coverage of the event is coming through twitter, but they were only 21 points out of earning that Olympic berth and 30 points out of a medal. Improve their vols and you have 15 points right there!
So despite the fact that there will be no U.S. entry in London in synchro platform, Laura and Amy should be itching to get back to work and show that they are world class athletes as a tenth place finish in the world would attest.
On a side note, at this point did you know that the U.S. is the only country outside of China that will send a full compliment of divers to compete in the individual events in London?
Also a big thanks to the twitter feeds that keeps us all updated to what is going on - British Swimming (@britishswimming) to USA Diving (@USADiving) and Edwin Jongejans (@Leedsajax), the tweeting Dutchman. His videos are almost like being there!
Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images
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