Senior Olivia Kim has been an essential part of the dive team, returning for her fourth season on Varsity Dive at Terra Linda High School and her second year as team captain. Kim expresses that her favorite aspect of being a part of the team is “having fun with my teammates at practice, going to competitions, and watching them learn and get more experienced with it [diving].” As team captain, she often encourages her teammates to keep their morale high. A core value of Kim’s when diving is focus. She explains that it’s important to “just focus on what you’re currently doing; any mistakes you’ve made on the past dives just forget about it, it’s already happened. Just look forward to what you’re doing next.” Along with being in a constant state of focus, Kim explains that perseverance is just as crucial when diving. Kim states, “Just not being discouraged by the failures that are going to happen in learning.” With a background of ten years in gymnastics, Kim was able to pick up diving quickly in high school and plans on “continuing to dive in college, having fun with it, and maybe joining a club team or a college team.”

Freshman diver Joshua Kim affirms Olivia’s dedication to the team and the sport alike. As a first-year diver, he’s observed the pristine quality and commitment she holds in her dives. Joshua states that her performance is “very impressive; she is currently my number one role model to look up to for what I want to do in the future of my dives.” Not only are Olivia’s dives high quality, but her values are as well. Joshua states, “If you stick with her, she’s a good person to be around.”

Her coach, David Cotton, a long-time collegiate and national diver, comments that Kim’s background in gymnastics “can be more of a help, but sometimes a bit of a hindrance, because gymnastics sometimes tends to not understand the dynamics of the diving board, which is different than the buckboard they use in gymnastics.” Being aware of that, he works with Kim, to wait and drive the diving board because the board is very slow compared to a gymnastics vault board. He notes that Kim has a good training ethic and good communication skills. “She knows what I want; she knows what can greatly benefit progression in practice, so she comes ready to train, and she does what’s asked of her.” In relation to Kim’s goal of joining a college team, he believes that she can do so with more training and practice: “Diving is about numbers and numbers of dives; she can progress to the college level and do quite well.” 

Kim demonstrates her passion and devotion to dive, by showing up to every practice and meet, ready to give it her all. She has consistently broken 150 points and nearly 180 points at every dive meet she’s competed in this year. We are all rooting for her this season, and as Coach Cotton says, “wishing her luck going forward.” She will surely excel at the collegiate level with her hard work and dedication.