Transcript of TBC Olympic coverage, profile of Timothy Swan
BELL (voiceover): Timothy Swan has been hailed by many as the next Greg Louganis. He’s an American diver who is universally agreed to have the most beautiful form in the air. He’s the first American diver in a while not to specialize but to compete in both the platform and springboard. And he’s an all-around athlete, getting his start in gymnastics and swimming before focusing on diving. This diving prodigy is a hometown boy. He grew up in Brookfield, Colorado, taking swimming, diving, and gymnastics lessons in nearby Boulder, and then he attended the University of Colorado, where he won the US Diving Championships four years in a row. He continues to train in Boulder with his coach, Donald Westfield.
SWAN: I love the mountains. It’s so beautiful here.
BELL (voiceover): Four years ago, Swan achieved the impossible. At the age of twenty, he performed a series of near-perfect dives and upset the Chinese divers, universally agreed to be unbeatable. But Timothy Swan was focused and flawless, and he comes to Madrid to defend his title in the ten-meter platform.
SWAN: I think I can do well on the springboard too. I missed it four years ago by a handful of points, but it’s there, that podium. I think I can get to it.
BELL (voiceover): But it’s been a difficult four years. He continues to rake up medals at home, but injuries kept him off the podium at the World Championships… twice. Some have questioned whether he’s still good enough to compete internationally, or if that Olympic gold medal was a fluke. And then there’s this.
SWAN (in an online video): This is a hard thing to do, but it’s really important for me to do it. I want my fans to know the real me. So I need to tell you, I’m gay. And this is my boyfriend, Patterson.
BELL: Do you have any regrets?
SWAN: About coming out? No. Never. Even after everything that’s happened… I mean, I get letters. I got one just last week, actually. This kid is a swimmer, not a diver, but he told me… he said his parents won’t approve of him, but he’s gay and he wants to be an Olympic athlete, and my coming out helped him think it was possible. And that’s everything, you know? If my coming out inspired only that one kid, it would be important. But I get letters like that a lot, hundreds of kids, and it’s amazing.
BELL (voiceover): But not everything has been amazing. A whirlwind romance with actor Patterson Wood culminated in a marriage proposal this January. It looked like Swan was on top of the world. But his happiness was short-lived. The couple split this May, mere weeks before the US Olympic Trials.
SWAN: It was hard emotionally. But diving saved me. Getting ready for the Trials and now the Olympics helped get my mind off of what happened with my relationship.
BELL: And how is training going?
SWAN: Really well. I have a new synchro partner, Jason. He’s a fantastic diver. Future of US Diving. You heard it here first.
BELL: Synchronized diving is a relatively new Olympic event. It’s why a lot of divers choose to specialize in the platform or the springboard. They’ll do two competitions in their specialty, the synchro and the individual. But you’re still doing the individual springboard event as well.
SWAN: I decided to give it a go. I did well at Trials.
BELL (voiceover): He did so well, he was the US men’s top qualifier in all of the events he entered.
BELL: You’re modest.
SWAN: I’m trying to be realistic. There’s a stacked field. Brilliant divers from China, Japan, Italy, England, and Australia. The medals could really go to anyone. On the one hand, it’s an exciting time to be diving and to realize that I can compete with all of these men. On the other hand, it’s a tough field to compete against. All I can do is keep training and put my all into it.
BELL (voiceover): Swan is modest, though. He’s an incredibly brave young gay man who is trying, at the age of twenty-four, to dive his way to another gold medal. Will he upset the Chinese again, or are they truly unbeatable? Does he have a real shot here? We’ll have to watch to find out.
Transcript: Men’s Synchronized Ten-Meter Platform Final
HOLLAND: Welcome back to the Domingo Aquatics Center. I’m Al Holland, and with me is Diane Bell. We’re here tonight for the finals of the men’s ten-meter platform final in synchronized diving.
BELL: I like the Americans’ chances in this competition, I have to say. Timothy Swan is the returning Olympic champion in the ten-meter platform. You’ll remember, four years ago, he gave a spectacular final dive that edged out the Chinese divers.
HOLLAND: But you have to admit, the Chinese are pretty hard to beat.
BELL: The team of Xiao and Ting are the reigning world champions, and they’ve been nearly flawless in the last three years of competition. I’m not sure anyone can beat them. Timothy Swan is paired up with a relative newcomer, Jason Evans. Evans was the junior world champion, but he has very little experience at this level. They could surprise us, and they’ve looked good all year, but this is a very deep field.
HOLLAND: In other words, you think the Chinese are going to win gold, but the Americans have an outside shot at a medal.
BELL: Well, yes. Don’t forget about the pair from Great Britain, though. They’re also a factor. They’ve looked great all year. And the Italians are also in the hunt, with the pair of Cologna and Burghini looking very good.
HOLLAND: Before we show you round two, let’s go to some highlights from round one. First up are the Italians.
BELL: These first-round dives are going to have a lower degree of difficulty, but look for the difficulty and the scores to go up each round. For this first dive, it’s all about both divers being in perfect sync with each other.
HOLLAND: All right. Well, let’s take a look at this dive from the Italians.
BELL: That was pretty great. Not a difficult dive. The degree of difficulty is only a 2.0. But both divers are in sync with each other. They’re off the platform together and quickly get into the pike position, then roll out and both enter vertically with very little splash. That’s what you want to do in your Olympic final.
HOLLAND: Still a lot more diving to go. The next pair up are Timothy Swan and Jason Evans.
BELL: Their practice sessions have looked good. Swan and Evans seem like a solid pair. Swan is a little cleaner than Evans and his form tends to be tighter. He’s a beautiful diver. But if these guys can demonstrate good synchronization, they have a shot at a medal. They’re doing the same first dive as the Italians.
HOLLAND: All right, here we go.
BELL: Oh, that was a great dive! You’ll see when we watch it in slow motion, they’re both off the platform at the same time. Evans is a little farther out from the platform than Swan, but that won’t affect the score. They’re very well in sync, as you’ll see here. Into the pike, and then they open up at the same time and they’re into the water cleanly. That was a great entry by both divers.
HOLLAND: And those scores put them ahead of the Italians….
BY ROUND three, Tim and Jason were in third place, behind the Brits and the Chinese, but the margin of difference between them was small enough that if Tim and Jason kept diving well, it was still anybody’s gold medal. The degree of difficulty of Tim and Jason’s last dive was higher than the Brits’, so they had a good chance of at least taking the silver.
Not that Tim was obsessing about the scoreboard.
Jason preferred to ignore it. Right now, he sat at the edge of a hot tub with his headphones on, bopping his head and mouthing the lyrics to whatever he was listening to.
Donnie looked grim when he walked over. “The Chinese have basically been perfect,” he said. “The Italians are right on your tail, only six points behind. If you whiff a dive, you’re off the podium.”
Well, gee. “I know,” Tim said.
“Not that I think you will! You guys looked great out there! No major mistakes. I’m really proud of you. But just so you understand the stakes….”
“I do.”
Donnie nodded. “Okay. You guys are the only divers in the competition doing the double twist in the last dive, so this might be ours if you nail it. You looked great on that last dive, but Jason was a little slow. Remind him to use his abs, get his legs right into the tuck, and get past the hurdle faster. That way at least you’re better in sync.”
“I will.”
“Okay, good.” Donnie looked back at Jason. “What the hell is he listening to?”
Tim followed Donnie’s gaze. Jason looked nearly ecstatic as he mouthed the words to some song. He put a hand over his ears and mimicked being in a recording booth.
“Who knows?” Tim said. “If it keeps him from getting too nervous, that’s all that matters.”
“Yeah. That’s what’s doing the Russians in. Did you see them?”
“No.”
“They’re very nervous. Really tight. They’re not completing their rotations and are going in sideways. Same thing has been happening to that Australian pair.”
“Sherman and Colin? But they’re so good.”
“It’s the Olympics. Nothing is preordained. Keep that in mind. Don’t get cocky.”
“No. I don’t feel cocky.”
“Good.”
The one thing that sucked about competition at this level was that the waiting time between dives could be lengthy. Divers dawdled at the top of the platform, trying to calm their nerves. Judges seemed to agonize over scores, sometimes taking their own sweet time to post them. A few divers had balked, getting to the edge of the platform and then hopping back as if they were suddenly afraid. While it wasn’t illegal, judges tended to frown on that if the actual dive fell short of perfect. So it was a challenge to stay warm, and that was why there were showers and hot tubs near the platforms. Still, it was difficult to keep nerves in check if you had to wait a half hour between dives.
As he and Jason lined up for their last dive, Tim wondered if Isaac was watching. The prelim swimming had been wrapping up on the other side of the Aquatics Center when the diving finals began, but Tim hadn’t seen Isaac since that morning. Likely he’d gone back to the Athlete Village to nap.
It was probably just as well.
They had 402 points heading into their last dive. They’d been in the second spot going into the final, so they were diving second-to-last, before the Chinese. That was good news; they wouldn’t have to wait long for the final result. But they were going to need ninety points to win a medal. The Italians currently had 485.5 points and the Brits had 490.6.
At the top of the platform, Jason nudged Tim with his shoulder. “We got this.”
“If we win gold tonight,” Tim said, “Isaac will sleep with me. We have a deal.”
“Guess we better win, then.”
Jason held up his fist, so Tim bumped it. They walked forward to the edge of the platform.
The dive was ridiculously difficult. In fact, it had the highest difficulty in the competition. The Chinese had a higher cumulative difficulty score, but this dive was Tim and Jason’s trump card. They’d been routinely nailing the dive in practice, but it had been shy of perfect in competition all year. They jumped backward, did two and a half somersaults in the air, then straightened out to twist twice before hitting the water. Completing the rotations and the twists took every bit of strength Tim had. That they had to do the dive at the same time in perfect synchronization made all of it that much tougher.
But this dive was in their grasp. Jason seemed more relaxed than Tim, which was a good sign. And really, Isaac was only a factor here insofar as he was on Tim’s mind. Tim knew they’d sleep together before the Olympics ended, probably several times, and he was eager for it.
But now he had to dive.
He and Jason stood in position at the edge of the platform. “Ready?” Tim asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay. One, two, three, go.”
Then they were in the air. Tim could see Jason out of the corner of his eye, but he flew and had to maintain control. He used his core strength to pull into the tuck, hurled himself around twice, pulled out into the twist, caught sight of Jason again—who was right there beside him—sighted the water, and went in.
He’d gone in straight. The dive felt good. No major mistakes.
When he surfaced, Jason was screaming.
“Oh my God!” Jason said. “Oh, my God, we did it!”
What they’d done remained to be seen, but it seemed like they’d dived successfully. Jason knew as well as anyone that if you did it wrong, you could feel it.
They both swam to the side of the pool and got out, but Jason was still pumped, jumping up and down and shouting. He pulled Tim into a hug.
Tim slung an arm around Jason and walked him back away from the pool so they could wait for the score to come in. Donnie approached with a grin on his face. “Amazing, you guys. Just amazing. I’ve never seen you dive like that in competition. That’s gotta get you nines, at least.”
Jason turned toward the scoreboard. Tim wanted to ward off disappointment, but he turned as well.
Score for the last dive: 92.6. That put them at 494.8 for the day, which shot them into first place.
“Only the Chinese left,” Donnie said.
For a brief moment Tim pictured himself on top of that podium again, someone draping that gold medal around his neck. His pulse shot up, his heart pounded, and the image was so vivid, he felt like he could have reached out and touched it.
He watched on the monitor as the Chinese divers walked to the edge of the platform. Their dive had a slightly lower degree of difficulty, but it was tenths of a point, so if they executed it better than Tim and Jason had done their dive, the gold was theirs. They also started backward, hurled off the platform, pulled into pikes, did two and a half somersaults before pulling out into a twist and entering the water. They executed the dive as if they were mirror images of each other, the most perfect dive synchronization Tim had ever seen. And they went into the water perfectly vertical with impossibly small splashes.
“They’ll win the gold,” Tim said, feeling a little defeated.
“But you’ll win a silver,” said Donnie. “That’s not a small thing.”
It wasn’t. And when the Chinese score went up—94.5, giving them an overall score of 496.2 for the day—Tim tried to be excited that he and Jason were the second-greatest dive team in the world.
The final scores were posted, with Tim and Jason in silver-medal position, and Jason lost his goddamned mind, jumping and hopping and hugging Tim, and Tim found his enthusiasm so infectious that he forgot all about the Chinese and went with it.
He’d won a medal at the Olympics. Donnie was right; that wasn’t a small thing.