Former Stanford Cardinal diver Cassidy Krug grew up eating, breathing, and sleeping diving. Her father is the diving coach at Pitt, and her mother coaches with their club arm.
She finished her college career in 2007 as a double NCAA Champion in the 1-meter and 3-meter. She has 10 USA Diving National Titles on the 10-meter between the individual and synchronized events.
But both in 2004 and 2008, she has struggled in the Olympic Trials, finishing 8th in this event both times. This year, she not only got off-the-hook of struggling at Olympic Trials, but busted clear-through to take the title and earn her first Olympic spot on Saturday with a score of 1094.85. She came into the finals with a 39-point lead, and proceeded to really make a statement with a big 79.5-point Inward 2 1/2 Somersault Pike to tighten her hold over Christina Loukas.
It apparently worked, because Loukas’ second dive only earned her 5.5’s, effectively giving Krug a full-dive lead. Loukas would finish 2nd in 1017.85, making her second-straight Olympic Team in this event. Neither of the two divers from the synchronized team qualified in the event individually, which harkens back to a tight 3-meter final where neither Kelci Bryant (3rd here) nor Abby Johnston (no final) were all that good independently, but instead received high marks for their synchronization in that event. That ended up catching them in this final.
The finishing result in this competition was nearly identical to what we saw at Winter Nationals earlier this year, with the exact-same top-6 finishing order as from that meet.
That parallel run came to an end at the hands of Gracia Leydon-Mahoney, a 15-year old from the Duke Aquatic Club who was 7th overall in this event. That’s a huge breakout performance for her on the springboard, after focusing on the platform for most of her career to this point.
Results for the women’s 3-meter springboard.
Full Meet Results available here.
Congratulations Cassidy. I’m especially happy for Stanford Diving Coach Rick Schavone! I believe she is his very first Olympian. (Eileen Richetelli was close, 3rd?, in ’96.)