Editorial July 27, 1992 Issue

What it takes to win

Mary Metzner Trammell

It had been an awful workout. None of her dives had gone right. And she'd bombed the most important dive in her list—the gainer two and a half twister—every time she tried it. As she dried off, she felt mad at her coach, her dad, and the relentless Texas heat.

The National Age Group Diving Championships had started out well enough two days ago, when she'd placed second in the one-meter sixteen-and-under competition. But in yesterday's event she'd missed an easy dive and, even though she was favored to win, had come in thirteenth! Now it looked like she was headed toward the same kind of disaster in this afternoon's event—the ten-meter tower competition. She felt defeated before she even started.

There were a couple of hours before the event, though, and she and her dad went inside the locker room to cool off and talk a little. At first, she felt more like crying than listening as her dad tried to encourage her. "Why should I go out there and make a fool of myself?" she said through her tears. "I'll just lose again."

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