Sunday, June 18, 2000
Ruehl keeps Olympics in focus
Fourth-place finisher in '96 just happy for chance after injuries
By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Becky Ruehl practices for this week's Olympic Trials.
(Gary Landers photos)
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Becky Ruehl is being quizzed about retirement, but there's no time for that talk.
During the week in question, she's taking final exams, designing a pig for the Big Pig Gig, helping produce a book for the University of Cincinnati's college of design, receiving the university's highest scholar-athlete award, graduating, and preparing to start her new job.
Oh, and practicing for the Olympic Diving Trials.
“I don't get nervous about the Trials because I don't have time,” she said.
It's by design. Ruehl attacks each day like a starving man would cheeseburgers.
Watch her this week at the Trials, which begin Tuesday in Seattle. How she climbs 10 meters up a ladder, sets herself, then immediately leaps. “When I get up on tower I go really fast,” she said. “That leaves less time for worrying. I don't wait and get nervous. I just keep moving.
“That's how life is, too.”
“I wouldn't have picked it and wouldn't have planned it this way, but I know that for some reason it was the right thing to happen,”
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Ruehl's magical run in 1996, when she became Northern Kentucky's first Olympian and then finished fourth, was a storybook start. But the next passage of her parable included plenty of pathos.
She tore up her right shoulder in a dive the following spring. After surgery and nearly 18 months of rehabilitation, she was then victimized by nerve damage in her right arm, which took a half-year to diagnose and just as long to treat.
“She's passionate about what she does,” said Charlie Casuto, her Cincinnati Stingrays and UC coach. “She doesn't do something halfway. So if she wasn't determined to come back, she wouldn't have done it.”
Ruehl went nearly three years between competitions on the 10-meter platform, yet she has battled back in one last push for perfection.
The former superstar, a four-time national champion, is now a sympathetic figure, a loveable long shot hoping her health holds out through 14 dives Friday and Saturday.
“Charlie has done a great job of maximizing her potential,” U.S. Diving president William H. Walker said. “I would not count Becky out, no matter what adversities she's had to overcome.”
Ruehl spent so much time coming back that she can't yet contemplate career closure. She had a heart-to-heart with her mother, Clare, at U.S. Indoor Nationals in April, and they realized together it was too soon to stop.
So this won't be her last meet, though it's likely her last Trials.
“I'm not going to commit for four years,” Ruehl said. “If I said that, I would be diving for the Olympics. I might just be ready to stop. I'll go year by year.”
The platform is a danger magnet, propelling divers into the water at about 35 mph from a height of more than 33 feet. Injuries aren't infrequent.
Comebacks can be. Though such former U.S. Olympians as Greg Louganis, Michelle Mitchell-Roche, Patrick Jeffrey and Mary Ellen Clark returned from shoulder surgeries, many never do.
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RUEHL FILE
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• Born: Dec. 23, 1977
• Hometown: Lakeside Park, Ky.
• Family: Parents Tony and Clare, sister Ellen (20).
• Education: Graduated last weekend from University of Cincinnati's College of Design Architecture Art and Planning (DAAP) with a graphic design major. Had 3.87 GPA. Graduate of Villa Madonna Academy, 1995.
• Major achievements/awards:
Fourth place, 1996 Olympics 10-meter platform
First Northern Kentucky Olympian
Four-time national champion, 10-meter platform
NCAA champion, 10-meter platform, 1996
Two-time junior national champion, 10-meter platform
Junior national champion, 3-meter springboard, 1996
Five-time Kentucky high school champion, 1-meter springboard
Helen Norman Smith Award winner (UC's top graduating student-athlete), 2000
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Ruehl didn't push her recovery because of gold-medal goals. After 15 years with Casuto, it's really about the love of the game.
“A good practice means so much more than it used to,” she said. “I really cherish it. I had a practice this week where it was just me and one other diver and Charlie.
“It was just incredible, so fun. I did everything Charlie wanted me to do, and we were understanding and communicating. That's what it's all about for me.”
When she couldn't dive, Ruehl never stopped by the pool. She poured herself into rehab and her graphic design studies, which she says she loves as much as diving.
Yet there was little doubt among friends that she'd be back.
“She is the most determined person I've ever met,” said Angie Trostel, a Stingray teammate the past 13 years. “She gets such a thrill out of diving.”
In her first meet back, the All-American Diving Invitational in January, Ruehl stunned observers by finishing third in a loaded field, just a hair out of second place.
That would be her highlight, though, as she struggled in placing ninth at both NCAA Championships and Spring Nationals. Just the top two finishers this week make the Olympics.
She's not figured a favorite; in fact, her bio isn't even among the 28 top contenders in U.S. Diving's media guide.
No bother.
“If I dove straight through the last four years, I would have had a lot of expectations,” Ruehl said. “But because so much has happened, I don't expect to make the team.”
What didn't kill her career only made her stronger.
“I wouldn't have picked it and wouldn't have planned it this way, but I know that for some reason it was the right thing to happen,” she said. “I've learned an incredible amount about acceptance and patience and faith.”
She's back on the move.
Working on “Olympig,” the Big Pig Gig entrant she and her family designed to represent Nick Vehr's Cincinnati 2012 Committee. (It's located at the corner of Fourth and Vine.)
Starting her job as a graphic designer at Kolar Design, a design studio downtown. (After only one day off after graduation.)
Reading. Always reading books. Even between dives at competitions.
There is no time to rest on lofty laurels. She still hasn't watched the tapes or read the articles from her '96 Olympic run, though she saw a highlight video made of her diving that moved her to tears.
“It was so special,” she said. “And yes, I want to go back really badly.”
Casuto wants Ruehl to increase her confidence this week, to “put the hammer down.” There is no time for caution or worries.
“We talk about putting on a show,” Ruehl said. “Just loving being up there, diving like I know I can and doing great.” Ruehl loves the altitude. But she won't linger on the view.
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