Louganis wins duel for diving double

Press, 28 September 1988, Page 31

Louganis wins duel for diving double

NZPA-Reuter Seoul Greg Louganis proved himself the world’s greatest diver yesterday, winning his gamble on the toughest last dive to snatch the Olympic highboard title from the 14-year-old Chinese schoolboy, Xiong Ni. The win gave Louganis an historic Olympic double of the two diving golds at successive games. The 28-year-old Californian trailed by three points before the last of the 10-dive series and the slight Chinese threw down a tremendous challenge with a final effort which notched a high 82.56 points. But Louganis, who had already clinched the springboard title in Seoul, proved more than equal to the challenge and trumped his rival with the biggest score of the day — 86.70 for a stunning reverse 3i/ 2 somersaults with tuck. The crowd squealed and cheered as the American squeezed past Xiong for the gold by little more than a point to become the first man to repeat an Olympic diving double, having achieved the feat in Los Angeles four years ago. It equalled the performance of fellow American Pat McCormick, who scored doubles in women’s diving in 1952 and 1956. Louganis, sporting a dressing on the top of his head after hitting the board during . the springboard qualifying series, captured the gold with a total of 638.61 points. Xiong took the silver with 637.47 and Jesus Mena, of Mexico, the bronze. It was Louganis’ fifth Olympic medal .in a series started with a silver in the highboard at the 1976 Montreal Games when the, American was 16 years old. Xiong, second best qualifier after Louganis, moved to the front for the

first time in the eighth series, outscoring the American by 10 points to lead by two points overall. Xiong and Louganis were left to duel for the gold and the young Chinese squeezed another precious point ahead as both drew gasps with the highest-scoring efforts so far with identical dives — 84.15 for Xiong and 83.16 for Louganis for their reverse 3y 2 somersaults with tuck. Ail hinged on the final dive and the American produced one last huge effort to earn his place in Olympic history. “Going into my last dive I had absolutely no idea how it was going to turn out because he is so talented and diving so well,” Louganis said in tribute to the diminutive rival half his age. “I just reminded myself that no matter what happened my mother was still going to love me, and that makes it easier.” In a seesawing contest in which the lead changed hands seven times in 10 dives, Louganis clinched his fourth Olympic title because he finished with a tougher dive than Xiong. Both executed their dives superbly, but a 3.4 degree of difficulty for a 31/2 somersaults reverse tuck earned Louganis 86.70 while the 3.2 for Xiong’s 3y 2 somersaults inward tuck yielded 82.56. “I knew that I was trailing going into the last dive. “I knew I had a slight degree of difficulty advantage but I didn’t know exactly what the points break was. “I think this is the closest competition I have been in in a major international competition,” Louganis said.