High hopes for Reiling

Sara Reiling begins competition in her first Olympic Games today, participating in the preliminaries of the women's 10-meter platform diving competition in Sydney, Australia.\nReiling, an IU junior and national indoor champion in the women's 3-meter springboard and seventh place finisher in the platform competition, qualified for the 10-meter platform event at the Olympic trials in June, finishing second to Laura Wilkinson. She will compete against top medal contenders such as China's Li Na, Canadian Emilie Heymans and teammate Wilkinson.\nIf Reiling finishes with one of the top scores in the preliminaries, she will go on to compete in the finals Sunday. Each possible dive that competitors perform has been assigned a degree of difficulty based on a mathematical formula. The takeoff position, number of somersaults, number of twists, flight position and entry position are considered in determining this degree.\nClean form and water entries with no splash are two key elements for getting a good score from the judges, said Jim Quinlivan, director of marketing for U.S. Diving.\n"It's really hard to say what kind of chances (Reiling) has, because Sara is so new internationally," Quinlivan said. "She has a pretty difficult dive list including one of the dives many of the top women will be doing, a back one and a half somersault with three-and-a-half twists."\nAssistant IU diving coach Adam Soldati said the chances of all the divers depend on what happens the day of competition.\n"Sara's strength lies a lot in her experience," Soldati said. "She's been in the sport a long time, she's got a great background in diving. She has good toe point, good lines and a lot of experience and time behind her." \nProgressive learning of new skills is the main way divers go from beginning levels to diving from ten feet in the air. Quinlivan said most divers first learn tricks on the lower boards and then master dives on higher levels.\n"In springboard diving there are a lot of timing issues because you have to be able to catch or ride the springboard," he said. "In platform, timing is not so much of an issue." \nDue to the 18-hour time difference between Bloomington and Sydney, Reiling's teammates will have to make the choice to check results for the preliminaries on the Internet or to wait it out and watch the taped competition on television.\n"I'm really eager to find out how she does," junior diver Erin Quinn said. "I know I can find out ahead of time, but I definitely haven't decided if I want to check it out or wait and watch on television."\nBefore Reiling left for Sydney, men's swimming coach Kris Kirchner advised her to have fun and keep a good attitude about the competition.\n"We're all cheering for her," Kirchner said. "Everyone at IU should think good thoughts and hope and pray she does her best. That's all she's got to do"