Tuesday July 25, 2000Montminy is
focused on Sydney
Having plunged toward a career away from the pool, the diver has forgotten past
disappointments
BEVERLEY SMITH
The Globe and Mail
Sports Reporter
Toronto -- Anne Montminy pierces the water, barely sending
up a spray. It's the kind of thing diving judges love.
In two months, Montminy, of Montreal, will be competing at
her third Olympics and she said yesterday she will be disappointed if she doesn't get a
medal. She's ranked second in the world on the 10-metre platform and has to fear a couple
of talented Chinese divers and her own teammate, Emilie Heymans of St. Lambert, Que., who
is ranked fourth in the world.
Four years ago in Atlanta, a medal slipped from Montminy's
hands, but now she's a little older, a little more accomplished and on much firmer ground.
"I had hoped to medal last time, too," she said
with a laugh, having parked the disappointments of the past Olympics in a back pocket long
ago.
But now, Montminy has a future focus. In June, she wrote
her final bar exams in Quebec.
"I know what I'm going to do when I retire now,"
she said. "That gives you a little more perspective."
She's not as intensely focused on her diving career because
there are so many other life goals ahead of her, she said yesterday. Montminy is
considering getting a masters degree in law, in the United States, next year.
"Diving is definitely a big part of my life, but it's
not the be-all and end-all," she said.
"In amateur sport, it's easy to get sucked in because
that's all most people do. You go to these meets and they take it so seriously and they
lose what reality is all about. But when you retire, you get a job and this may not be the
only thing. In some countries, it may be the only thing. But not in Canada."
Montminy juggled things that many amateur athletes set
aside, while trying to prepare for elite competitions, such as the Olympics. She finished
law school in three years, in regular time. She wrote her final bar exams only a week
before the Olympic diving trials in June. It wasn't the best time she ever had, but now
she says she's glad she did it.
"I was so miserable," she said. "I almost
had a breakdown during that period."
If she had failed the exam, she would have had to redo it
next year.
"It was pure hell," she said, speaking of the
unpredictable nature of the questions -- and answers. "The Quebec bar is made to make
you miserable. A lot of people fail it and it's just unfair. I don't mind saying
that."
Montminy had to write six four-hour exams, spread out over
eight months. A student is allowed a week to rewrite failed exams. Montminy failed only
one of the exams and was forced to write two tests in the week before Olympic trials.
When she competed at the trials, she still didn't know if
she had passed. She wasn't at all confident that she had. Obviously, she was able to put
it behind her: Montminy won the Olympic trials.
A month later, she found out she passed her bar exam.
With less than two months to go before the Olympic Games,
Montminy is in preparation mode. One step was winning the national summer championships in
Thunder Bay last Sunday, overtaking Heymans after the final dive.
"I really wasn't expecting much because everybody was
just training through [that competition]," Montminy said. "Emilie looked really
good during the week, so I thought, 'yeah, I'll be second.' "
Heymans missed her final dive. Montminy got a perfect 10 on
hers. She said she was surprised when she saw the 10.
"It wasn't a 10 dive," Montminy said candidly.
"People were getting carried away there."
Heymans does more difficult dives, but Montminy stays with
simpler dives that give her confidence. Her final dive on Sunday, a back 2½ somersault
with 2½ twists has a degree of difficulty of 2.8, while Heymans does dives that rank
higher than 3.0.
But Montminy explains her choice this way: For each 0.1
increase in difficulty, a diver might get only 0.25 more of a mark from each judge.
"It's not that big a deal if you have a lower [degree
of difficulty]," she said.
"I was going to try and up my D.D., but the only
person I felt low on was Emilie and when she's in your face at every competition, you
think maybe you should, too. But my D.D. is the same as the best diver in the world. I
thought about it, but then I thought at the Olympics, you need to be consistent and feel
confident about your list [of dives]. You have to be calm."
And Montminy looks calm. She has a cool, fresh look about
her these days. And that's a good sign.
Repinted with permission
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