By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 9, 2008; E01

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 8 -- Two local athletes born four months and 17 miles apart excelled in different sports in different places and with different coaches until meeting a common fate: Injuries shattered their Olympic dreams. At least that's wh at Amanda Miller of Centreville and Mary Yarrison of Springfield believed until just more than two years ago.

That's when Yarrison finally overcame a string of ailments that she thought had derailed a diving career that began, essentially, when she did her first flip into the water at age 5. And that's when Miller, forced to give u p high-level gymnastics at 16 because of repeated elbow surgeries, realized she could, despite her late and reluctant start, move into diving's elite.

Both are among the favorites to make the U.S. Olympic diving team that will compete in Beijing this August.

But this is where their comeback stories hit a snag: One might go to the Games, but not both.

Yarrison and Miller, who will compete at a star-studded grand prix that begins here Friday night, are among the nation's top synchronized divers, but they aren't partners. In early July, USA Diving officials will select only one two-woman synchronized team in their event, the three-meter springboard, for this year's Games.

Which means if Yarrison and partner Abby Johnston were to win the slot, Miller and teammate Christina Loukas would be out. And vice versa. The losers would then have to fight for a spot in an individual diving event -- an even more daunting challenge.

"I have no idea what's going to happen," said Miller, who turned 23 Wednesday.

"We've been doing well, but nothing's in the bag yet," said Yarrison, who turns 23 in September.

Nothing is in the bag except the certainty of high drama. Yarrison and Miller want to perform well at this event, the fifth stop in the 2008 FINA Diving Grand Prix, to stack their résumés in advance of the July 2-6 selection camp in Knoxville, Tenn.

Yarrison's and Miller's hopes could be snuffed out by U.S. teammates Ariel Rittenhouse and Kelci Bryant, who aren't competing here but have more international experience and are considered favorites by some. And there is the veteran team of Nancilea Foster and Cassidy Krug, a respected duo recently slowed by injuries.

"I think it's a toss-up," said Adam Soldati, Miller's coach. "You could call them all the favorites. They've all swapped places in various meets."

Though their summer plans remain uncertain, this is for sure: Miller and Yarrison, who have known each other since their high school days at Centreville and Lee High, respectively, are thrilled to be in the thick of the action. They describe themselves as friendly rivals, with the emphasis on friendly. Yarrison and Johnston won gold at the recent spring national championships in Indianapolis. Miller and Loukas finished second.

Both realize storming the podium Friday night in a sport dominated by Chinese divers would bolster their reputations.

"This meet is like an Olympic preview," Yarrison said. "There are a lot of people here who are going to be at the Olympics. We want to medal. I think that would prove clearly that we're competitive, and were we sent to Beijing, we'd do a good job."

For a long time, Yarrison thought her first Olympic chance four years ago would be her last. While executing a preliminary dive at the 2004 Olympic trials, she stretched a nerve in her shoulder so severely she lost feeling in her arm. She missed three months of training. Then, weeks after getting back in the pool at the University of Arizona, where she was attending school, she flipped an all-terrain vehicle at a friend's ranch, tearing three ligaments in her other shoulder.

That put her out for an additional five months.

The following April, she was back to training. A month later, she broke her ankle.

She transferred to the University of Texas, where she figured she would focus on her studies and dive for fun under Coach Matt Scoggin, a Great Falls native who attended Langley High. She had been sidelined nearly two years by the time she competed again in the spring of 2006. It was then that her career took another surprising turn: She finished first at the U.S. championships in the three-meter synchro event just weeks after meeting Johnston.

They had been introduced by their coaches at a qualifying meet for the championships because they had similar styles.

"It was like, 'Mary, this is Abby, Abby, this is Mary; now go out and try to do some jumps,' " Yarrison recalled. "We're the exact same build; we have similar mannerisms; we stand the same and walk the same. It's really strange."

Stranger yet has been Miller's path to the top of the sport. As a child, she dreamed of making an Olympic team in gymnastics, but her body broke down before her enthusiasm did. Forced out of the gym, she turned to diving, hoping only to be good enough to get the college scholarship she had been banking on.

"I really did not want to quit gymnastics," she said. "It took a long time to cross over. It's probably still a work in progress. . . . Going from landing on my feet to landing on my head was quite an issue."

Miller, however, learned fast, and she clicked with Soldati, her coach at Purdue, as well as Loukas, who trains at nearby Indiana University. She is certain that, even if things don't work out this year, she will have another Olympic opportunity in 2012.

Yarrison, however, is planning to retire after nearly two decades in diving. The only question is when: on July 8, the day after the U.S. Olympic team is announced, or on Aug. 25, the day after the Closing Ceremonies.

"If it ends in Beijing, fabulous," Yarrison said. "If it ends in Knoxville, that's okay, too. All of this has been fantastic."