Justin Wilcock's back.
Anatomically speaking, a severely injured back resulted in
Wilcock — the Smithfield native and 2004 Olympian — posting a
last-place finish at the Athens Games.
Figuratively speaking, Wilcock is hoping to repeat as a member of
the U.S. Olympic diving team and punch his ticket for the 2008 Beijing
Games later this summer.
He's one of a dozen men vying for top spot on the 3-meter
springboard at this week's U.S. Olympic Diving Trials, which began
Wednesday and run through Sunday at the IUPUI Natatorium in
Indianapolis.
Preliminaries for the men's 3-meter begin early this afternoon,
with the semifinals held later this evening. The men's and women's
3-meter finals will begin Saturday at 1 p.m. MDT and will be shown live
on NBC.
Four divers will earn guaranteed Olympic team berths this week — the winners of the four events (men's and women's 3-meter springboard
and men's and women's 10-meter platform).A second diver in each event as well as the sychronized teams in
the four events will be chosen July 7 after a weeklong selection camp
in Tennessee, with the top six finishers from each event invited.
A new twist to this year's Olympic trials — scores will be
combined from the prelims, semis and finals, with the winning divers
those with the highest aggregate scores throughout. The format was
changed after the U.S. was shut out of diving medals at the 2004 Athens
Games — the first time in 92 years — and is designed to reward a
diver's consistency.
Wilcock, who is living in Indianapolis and training with national
team coach Wenbo Chen, is also looking for a chance to qualify in the
synchronized event. He finished fifth earlier this year at the Speedo
USA Diving Spring National Championships in the individual 3-meter
springboard and teamed up with Burkley Showe — his partner for the past
two years — to finish second in the 3-meter synchronized event at the
same national meet.A former three-time conference diver of the year while competing
at BYU, Wilcock is a five-time member of the U.S. National diving team,
with a string of annual honors starting in 2003 — only interrupted in
2005 when he left diving for nearly a half-year after his back injury.Having made the '04 Olympic team, Wilcock was doing weight
training prior to the Athens Games when he suffered a stress fracture
in his back.In pain and unable to compete at his highest level, he mulled
pulling out of the Olympic competition but decided at the last minute
to dive. He finished last out of the 32 Olympians, scoring a zero on
one dive and hitting his head on the board on another attempt — but the
crowd at the Athens diving competition recognized he was far from full
strength and, as he climbed out of the pool following his final dive,
rewarded him with thunderous applause.The 29-year-old took up diving at the age of 12, having
participated in gymnastics several years previous. He also interrupted
his diving career to serve an LDS Church mission in France and Belgium
from 1998 to 2000.