Wednesday, May 19, 1999

Injury tests Olympic diver's nerves

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Ruehl dismisses 2000 Games, just wants to compete

BY NEIL SCHMIDT
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Becky Ruehl, fourth in the 1996 Olympics, wears a ring with the Olympic symbol. (Michael E. Keating photos) | ZOOM |

        Physical therapist Jo Terry finds a spot on Becky Ruehl's right arm, then grinds her thumbs into the flesh, rubbing tissue against bone. Ms. Ruehl grits her teeth. She then does a handstand against a wall, doing push-ups in that position until her arms collapse.

        For the Olympic diver from Lakeside Park, this spells agony but also hope. Perhaps her last.

        “I'm not too proud to pray for a miracle,” she said.

        Ms. Ruehl's career is at a crossroads. The four-time national 10-meter platform champion hasn't dived in nearly half a year, victimized by nerve damage from which her doctors can't ensure recovery.

        Coming right after shoulder surgery and nearly 18 months of rehabilitation, the new problem could cripple Ms. Ruehl's comeback bid at age 21.

        Or, merely make her stronger.

        “Maybe that's why I'm injured, just to make me appreciate the ability I've been given,” she said.

        “I feel if I go back now, it'll be like riding a bike — less fear then ever. I've matured mentally. I feel I would have those kind of advantages.”

        But the woman who was once America's top diving hopeful for the 2000 Olympics now dismisses that as a goal.

        “I always just wanted to be the best diver I could be. I don't want to give up on that yet.”

Ruehl does a handstand against a wall in a rehab session. | ZOOM |

        It's a curious perch. There is optimism, fueled by three weeks of progress since the diagnosis. There is talk of doing 1- and 3-meter dives in less than two months, maybe platform diving in the fall.

        Yet, one more setback, and her avocation of 14 years will be a memory.

        “It's one of those wait-and-see situations that teaches you about life,” said Ms. Ruehl's mother, Clare.

        “We're all willing to accept the outcome, no matter what it is.”

        This is a story about a diver

        but not so much about diving. It's about a woman not yet ready to drop a dream.

A lot of spirit
        “This girl has more spirit than any person I've ever known before,” Mrs. Terry said. “She is determined to come back.”

        Ms. Ruehl has been diving since age 7, training with Charlie Casuto's Cincinnati Stingrays team. She blossomed three years ago, becoming Northern Kentucky's first Olympian and finishing fourth in the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.

        But she tore up her right shoulder in a dive the following spring. After the long climb back to platform diving, she hurt her arm in a dive in November.

        This time her arm “collapsed” upon entry, leaving the triceps weak. Ms. Ruehl had suffered such pain before, but it usually vanished after a couple of days. This time it didn't.

        She tired doing routine tasks — using a computer mouse, combing hair, etc. She sought out therapists around the country, and they pored over anatomy textbooks.

        Finally, the culprit: the inferior lateral brachial cutaneous nerve, a small branch off the radial nerve, which controls the triceps. The discovery was what Mrs. Terry calls “finding a needle in a haystack.”

        The nerve suffered a traumatic injury, damaged by years of force from hitting the water at 35 mph. Mrs. Terry's “massages” in her Wilder office break up scar tissue around the nerve, but therapy hasn't brought back the nerve's sensory portion — it doesn't react to touch. Still, the motor portion improves.

        “I've seen her go from not being able to do basic exercises to doing a couple of sets of handstands against the wall,” Mrs. Terry said. “Both arms feel the same, completely fatigued, which is most optimistic.

        “It's hard to contain your optimism with someone like her. You want so much for everything to work out.”

        Ms. Ruehl, in the fourth year of a five-year graphic design program at UC, has filled her down time with other pursuits. She talks excitedly about her major (her grade point average is 3.8), is teaching herself to cook and has a boyfriend in Chicago.

        Yet a void remains.

"A huge part of my life'
        At a charity dinner last week, Ms. Ruehl squirmed watching an Olympic highlight video. Stopping by a Stingrays practice hurts more.

        “I had a lot of potential that I didn't realize yet in diving,” she said. “I think more about personal goals — Charlie and me, and what we wanted to do, techniques I wanted to master.”

        “She misses diving; she misses Charlie,” Clare Ruehl said. “She doesn't smell like chlorine anymore.”

        Said Becky: “I'm generally optimistic, but I'm preparing for the worst. I know I'll enjoy graphic design whether I go back to diving or not, but I'm missing a huge part of my life.”

       

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