Hoosier divers prepare for Olympic opportunity at FINA Diving World Cup

More than 4,000 miles away from where their teammates were battling in the Big Ten Championships, IU divers junior Amy Cozad, sophomore Laura Ryan and IU Diving Coach Jeff Huber intently followed the results of the competition live online.

They couldn’t be in Iowa City, Iowa, helping IU in its quest for a fourth consecutive Big Ten title. Instead, they were at the Olympic Village in London, preparing for an opportunity of a lifetime.

On Wednesday, Cozad and Ryan will compete in the FINA Diving World Cup in the women’s 10-meter synchronized dive, with the opportunity to qualify the United States for the 2012 London Olympics.

“In London, right now, it is such a unique experience to be in the Olympic Park and training in the Olympic Pool,” Ryan said. “It really is a dream come true to be over here, but we know we have a job to get done.”

The chance to reach this came from the 2012 USA Diving Winter National Championships in December 2011 in Knoxville, Tenn., where the duo competed in the 10-meter synchronized dive against teams that had been in the Olympics in 2008 and teams that had beaten them only two weeks prior.

If they finished in first place, they would qualify for the World Cup, in which the world’s best divers would compete.

“It came down to our last dive, and we had to hit that dive well to win,” Cozad said. “We were the last team of the competition. We had to score big, and everyone in the crowd was biting their nails counting on us. Given such a high-pressured situation, Laura and I used our trust in each other, in our coaches and our training to keep us focused and ready to show the audience what we had been working on.”

The pair defeated the 2008 USA Olympics team of Mary-Beth Dunnichay and Haley Ishimatsu by a mere 6.12 points, sealing their trip to the World Cup.

“I remember looking up at the scoreboard and seeing we’d won and just thinking how great it felt to know that all our hard work was paying off,” Ryan said. “Being an athlete at this level comes with a lot of sacrifices, and to have a meet like that just makes it all that much more worth it.”

Soon after that meet, however, they realized the World Cup would intervene with the timeline of the Big Ten Championships.

Faced with the tough choice, Huber and IU Coach Ray Looze agreed that the divers’ Olympic dreams were more important. With that, the pair headed to London with Huber as their trainer.

While the two divers and Huber were only able to keep up with the meet via the Internet, the IU swimming and diving team placed second in the Big Ten Championships.

“It was very bittersweet,” Ryan said. “I was beyond excited to be given this opportunity to compete in London, but there was definitely a part of me that wishes I were able to compete at Big Tens. But it came down to a choice, and I knew the team would be understanding. They have always been such a great support system.”

The pair has trained with Huber for about a week in London. The two will compete against the best synchronized divers in the world from 13 other countries.

Four countries have already qualified, and if the two Hoosiers finish in the top four of the remaining nine competitors, the U.S. ticket will be booked for the London 2012 Olympics. The pair would then have to qualify for a spot for themselves at the Olympic Trials in June in Seattle.

“We are one of the best synchro teams in the world, and we proved that in Tennessee,” Cozad said. “I imagined this opportunity many times, and we have put in the hard work and dedication to get here. Now it’s time to show the rest of the world why we are the best.”