By Justin Wilcock <\/p>\n
ST. PETERS, Mo., June 8. 2000 OLYMPIAN Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) got off to a good start in the men\u2019s 3-meter springboard event at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials \u2013 Diving, placing first after the semifinals with a score of 678.03 points. Since scores from the preliminaries and semifinals carry over to the finals, Dumais is in a strong position to make his second U.S. Olympic Team.<\/p>\n
Not far behind Dumais is the University of Tennessee\u2019s Phillip Jones (Lexington, Ky.) and Dumais\u2019 teammate Justin Wilcock (Smithfield, Utah). Jones is currently in second place, trailing Dumais by 13 points with the score of 665.31 points. Wilcock is only one point behind Jones with the score of 664.38 points. Both Dumais and Wilcock train at the USA Diving Centralized Training Center in The Woodlands, Texas. <\/p>\n
The men\u2019s 3-meter springboard final will take place on Friday, June 11. The first place finisher in the event will be nominated to the U.S. Olympic Team. The second place finisher may also be nominated to the Team, depending on the results of Wednesday\u2019s men\u2019s synchronized 3-meter final. The official Team selection process for men\u2019s platform is as follows:<\/p>\n
1. The winner of an individual event will be nominated to the U.S. Olympic Team.<\/p>\n
2. Second place in an individual event at the Trials will be nominated if he\/she is also a nominee for the synchronized event at that height.<\/p>\n
3. Second place in an individual event at the Trials will be nominated if the winner of that individual event is a nominee for the synchronized event at that height.<\/p>\n
4. The highest placing synchronized nominee in an individual event will be nominated if the second place diver is not nominated per 2 and 3 above.<\/p>\n
ATHLETE QUOTES:<\/p>\n
PHILLIP JONES:<\/p>\n
ON HITTING HIS TOE ON A DIVE. \u201cIt was my last optional, reverse 2 1⁄2 with 1 1⁄2 twist pike. I ended up a little bit back on the board and I got it going really well and I thought I was perfectly fine, I didn\u2019t think I was close to the board at all. I came out and just nicked my toe a little bit. It didn\u2019t affect me on the dive. I ended up straight up and down. Its just the judges heard it and had to deduct for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
ON THE COMPETITION TODAY AND WHERE HE IS IN IT. \u201cI was a little nervous starting off\u2014anyone would be nervous starting off at the Olympic Trials, but I felt really relaxed today going into each dive. I wasn\u2019t thinking about anything. I was just going up there and doing my thing. I haven\u2019t been that consistent in a long time. I\u2019m normally pretty consistent, but it\u2019s never around the scores that I was doing today. I\u2019ve been training really well. I came into this meet ready and I\u2019m just real excited right now because I\u2019m in a position to do well and I just want to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
ON THE STRENGTH OF HIS OPTIONAL DIVES. \u201cOptionals are by far my strength. My requireds have been struggling a lot, but they\u2019ve actually gotten a lot better preparing for these Olympic Trials. I\u2019ve really been working hard on them and I did a really good job for myself today on my requireds. Now I\u2019m looking forward to optionals. That\u2019s what I love. I love spinning. That\u2019s my favorite thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
ON HIS MENTALITY GOING INTO THE 2000 TRIALS VERSUS THE 2004 TRIALS. In 2000 \u201cI was the youngest diver in the competition and I really didn\u2019t have a set goal for myself. I really just wanted to go in there and dive well and be consistent. My goal was to make the finals because at that point I was so young I was never a threat to all the other divers, but coming into this one, I knew I had a chance and I knew I was up there competing with all the top guys. I came in kind of the same way. I just want to land on my head and be consistent. I\u2019ve trained as hard as I could. I have no doubts in my mind that I am more ready for this meet than I have ever been. I just want to go out and have some fun and just let it all happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
ON DIVING IN THE SYNCHRO. \u201cMyself and my teammate (Jevon Tarantino) were first alternate on the synchro and we just found out that we can actually dive now because a team pulled out. We got to make some decisions on whether we\u2019re going to actually dive or just forego it since we haven\u2019t practiced it that much. My guess is that we will actually be in that contest tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
TROY DUMAIS:<\/p>\n
ON THE DIVES. \u201cI enjoy doing voluntaries. I\u2019m good at them. I have confidence in them. When it comes to actually doing optionals, these dives, even though they are hard and technical dives, they are not spinning and they are not flipping so much. You just show off the dives and if you can do that you\u2019re going to get good scores.\u201d<\/p>\n
ON HIS PERFORMANCE TODAY. \u201c I felt alright. I feel flat. I didn\u2019t get up for this contest like I needed to. This is Olympic Trials and I should be juiced. I\u2019ve been waiting for this all year and it also hits me that I\u2019ve been waiting for the Olympics all year. That\u2019s my goal. This is a stepping-stone to get there and unfortunately, I didn\u2019t tune to the right channel today. I am not so much frustrated about my diving, I\u2019m frustrated about that because if I could turn it around, my diving would have been even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
ON HIS COMPETITION. \u201cRight now I\u2019m competing against myself. My goal today was to do a good job what I was capable of doing at that point in time and see where I ended up. My coach went up to me and said \u2018Hey, you know what the difference between you and the rest of the competition\u2026you\u2019re not diving what you are capable of diving. You\u2019re here not to lose and everybody else is here to win.\u2019 And it\u2019s completely true. There have been practices where I\u2019ve had more juice than I had in that meet. And that is my problem. That\u2019s not anybody else\u2019s problem and I have to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
ON THE SYNCHRO. \u201cMy brother (Justin Dumais) is there and we\u2019re going to have some fun together. Whenever we dive together we try to have some fun. And then you communicate with someone who is close to you to do well and my brother wants me to do well so that\u2019s going to help us stay in the moment and stay juiced up to do what we are capable of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
ABOUT THE OLYMPIC TRIALS CONTEST. \u201cThese meets aren\u2019t always competitions. They are like shows. This Olympic Trials, you\u2019re trying to show the judges that you are good enough to be on the team. Everybody out there is a good enough competitor whether they say so or not. They can do the dives. They have all hit their dives at one point or another and putting them together in a competition. Everybody can do that. But if they have fun and make it a show and show the judges that they can do it, then it\u2019s going to be tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
–Courtesy USA Diving<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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