Execution Costs Americans a Medal
Miller-Loukas Stumble, Finish Fourth

By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 10, 2008

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 9 -- There was consolation in this: A mere three points separated them from the podium, where two Olympic gold medalists and last year's world bronze medal winners stood Friday in the setting sun at the conclusion of the women's synchronized diving three-meter springboard final.

But there was frustration in that, too.

Shoddy execution on their two easiest dives essentially cost Centreville's Amanda Miller and her diving partner, Christina Loukas, a bronze medal at the 2008 AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix, a major stop on the international diving circuit that leads to the Olympics.

Their 300.90 points put them fourth behind Russia's Yulia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdniakova, who tallied 316.62 points; China's Zhao Qinxin and Li Ting, 313.20; and Australia's Sharleen Stratton and Briony Cole, 303.96.

"It's always frustrating when you are just outside the bubble," said Miller, a Centreville High graduate. "But it's good to know we're competitive with all those other teams, even minus our two" basic dives.

Miller and Loukas also advanced in the nerve-rattling race to earn the lone U.S. Olympic team slot in the event, topping Springfield's Mary Yarrison and Abby Johnston, who finished sixth with 292.20 -- just behind Germany's Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fischer (296.22). With the U.S. Olympic diving selection camp just seven weeks away, the result here likely will factor into what is a complex equation for picking the team.

If Yarrison and Johnston, who beat Miller and Loukas to the gold medal at the recent spring national diving championships, were disappointed with Friday's performance, they did not show a glimpse of it, after the event or during. Especially during.

They exchanged a newly created high five before each dive -- each slapped the other's opposite hands -- and Yarrison positively beamed on the board before each jump, clearly enjoying the enthusiastic cheers from the small but pro-American crowd.

"That," Yarrison said, "was genuine."

Added Yarrison, a graduate of Lee High: "It would have been nice [to win a medal], but you can't sit in your hotel and cry about it. That's the way it goes. It would have been one thing if we had embarrassed ourselves, but it was a good contest and we got sixth."

Yarrison had reason to enjoy the weekend: She took her last collegiate final exam in a University of Texas course on American defense policy Wednesday morning. Her father Jim, a retired Army contractor, and mother Betsy, an English professor at the University of Baltimore, cheered her on in the stands. And she and Johnston made time this week to relax on the beach, which sits about 100 yards from the entrance to the pool.

"That was a blast," Johnston said. "I'm so glad I'm here. It's not about the scores, it's about how you feel."

For Miller and Loukas, the scores looked better than they felt about the night's work, irked as they were over failing to execute seamlessly their two easiest dives -- a forward dive pike and an inward dive pike. They earned two of the lower marks of the first two rounds, tallying just 93.00 compared to the 96.00 with which Yarrison and Johnston began.

"I think we just looked past our first two dives because they were, like, easy dives," Loukas said. "It was a mistake on our part."

How careless were they? They noted, with grins, that they even neglected to do their personal pre-dive handshake -- which involves pounding the tops of each other's fists once, then spreading their fingers wide -- before those two dives. They corrected their mistakes quickly: They did the handshake before their next attempt, then nailed the dive. It was ranked the third best of the night.

That was saying something considering that the gold-medal winning Russian team included a former world champion and Olympic gold medal winner (Pakhalina); the Chinese team featured an Olympic champion (Li); and the third-place Aussies also claimed the bronze at last year's world championships in Melbourne.

And the fifth-place German team? They are the reigning world silver medal winners.

"I wouldn't say we're satisfied, but I wouldn't say we have regrets, either," Yarrison said. "Apart from the Chinese, this is everyone's A team here."

Said Johnston: "We've never competed at that level. For us, we did really well."