Mary Ellen Clark and Kent Ferguson have answered the question so many times that the answer is automatic.
When the 33-year-old South Floridians are asked why they're still competing at an age when most divers are retired, the reply is that they simply can't stop. Not now. Not after what they have overcome.After more than two decades of training and competition, the two 1992 Olympians came to Indianapolis this week hoping to claim a spot on the U.S. team for the Atlanta Games.
Both divers nearly didn't make it to this week's Olympic Trials because of medical problems between Olympics. Competition began Wednesday night with preliminaries in the 3-meter springboard.
Clark, the 10-meter bronze medalist in Barcelona four years ago, began suffering from vertigo and missed the 1995 season.
Ferguson, fifth on the 3-meter board at Barcelona, struggled with depression and a bad back.
Both easily could have walked away from the sport.
For five months in 1988 and for three days in 1990, Clark suffered bouts of vertigo - the same dizziness-causing condition that ended the career of former Reds infielder Nick Esasky. The vertigo lingered last year from January to October, and Clark sought help from everyone from neurologists to acupuncturists. Last September, she finally found relief in CranioSacral Therapy, a combination of massage and chiropractic methods.
Clark began her competitive comeback at the HTH Classic in Rockville, Md., in March. She finished first in 3-meter and third in 10-meter. At the U.S. Indoor Nationals in April in Oxford, Ohio, she was third on 3-meter and eighth on 10-meter.
"Making this Olympic team would be extra special," said Clark. "We all have to go through some things before the Trials; I did in '88. But nothing like this. It would have been easier to walk away. But I never want to do the easy thing."
Ferguson said he nearly walked away several times. Ferguson, once considered five-time Olympic medalist Greg Louganis' chief competition at 3 meters, never has stood atop the Olympic medal stand. After placing fifth in the '92 Games he intended to quit.
Ferguson had given up on his dream of attending dental school following the '88 Trials in order to train and said he had no plans after the '92 Olympics.
"There's always a crash," Ferguson said. "I guess I started my post-Olympic depression sooner than the other guys because I finished fifth and I got through it faster and got integrated into real life quicker."
Ferguson also was battling a herniated disc in his back. By 1994, he was in pain when walking. He gambled on last-ditch therapy from a chiropractor who also utilized acupuncture treatments. Two weeks later, Ferguson was healthy.
His doctor then helped him redesign his mechanics so the problem wouldn't recur. Now Ferguson is pain-free.
"I love to fly off a diving board and feel the spin," said Ferguson, who won the U.S. Outdoor 3-meter title last August and was second at the U.S. Indoors in April.
Ferguson has a management career with Home Depot and plans to pursue his master's in business administration after the Games.
"The four years between Olympics are always a learning experience," Ferguson said. "But this has been my best one. It's kind of a merging of mind, body and soul. It's been less focus on outcome and more focus on enjoying the process of competing."