Olympic Diving Trials: Dumais qualifies for fourth Olympics, Ipsen his first

Courtesy USA Diving

Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) became a four-time Olympian and Kristian Ipsen (Clayton, Calif.) qualified for his first Games when the duo paired to win the men’s synchronized 3-meter title at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials on Friday evening.

Dumais and Ipsen scored 1296.21 points, 32.7 points ahead of the second-place team of Chris Colwill (Brandon, Fla.) and Drew Livingston (The Woodlands, Texas).

By qualifying for the London Games, Dumais becomes only the second U.S. male diver to be named to four Olympic teams. The legendary Greg Louganis (1976, 80, 84, 88) is the other.

“Four Olympics is a phenomenal feat. It’s nice going to four Olympics, but it’s even nicer working your tail off and reaching your dreams and goals,” said the 32-year-old Dumais, who also qualified for the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Games.

Their final dive, a front  2 ½ with 2 twists, earned 8.5s and 9s for 87.72 points and secured the victory.

“When it was over and I looked up at my family and friends, it was finally like a dream come true,” said Ipsen, who qualified for his first Olympics at age 19.

While Dumais and Ipsen did not compete a dive with a degree of difficulty higher than 3.5 at the Trials, they indicated they may upgrade their list for London. They may perform a front 2 ½ with 3 twists, which carries a degree of difficulty of 3.9, in place of their reverse 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists (which has a 3.3 DD). They competed the triple in several international meets earlier in the year.

“Going into the Olympics, we’re not going to leave any stone unturned. If our 5156 is ready, we’ll use it,” Dumais said.

The U.S. Olympic Team Trials for diving continue through June 24. Saturday’s competition features individual finals in men’s 10-meter and women’s 3-meter.

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