COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Kelly McCormick followed in her mother's footsteps Thursday night and Greg Louganis followed in his own.
McCormick and Louganis captured the 3-meter diving competitions at the National Sports Festival, thus becoming the first medal winners at the huge celebration of American amateur athletics and winning spots on the U.S. Pan American Games team that will go to South America later this summer.
Although the first of the medals were distributed Thursday night, the opening ceremonies will not be held until tonight -- when almost 3,000 athletes will march into the football stadium at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The competition begins with a flourish on Saturday when 15 events will be contested.
McCormick is the daughter of Pat McCormick, who in both 1952 and 1956 won the Olympic 3-meter and platform diving gold medals. McCormick's mother was in the audience Thursday night.
'This was the first time my mother has ever seen me win a meet,' said the Festival champion. 'She told me just to go out and have some fun.'
McCormick, of Columbus, Ohio, totaled 514.86 points to edge Wendy Wyland of Mission Viejo, Calif., who scored 508.44. Chris Seufert of Ambler, Pa., who led qualifying on Wednesday night, finished third with 499.62.
Louganis, the dominating force in world diving and a heavy favorite to win an Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles, grabbed his second straight Festival 3-meter title despite not being at his best.
'I was satisfied with my effort,' said Louganis, who has won every U.S. indoor and outdoor title since 1979. 'But I have dived better than I did tonight.
'I think I was really nervous. They picked the Pan American Games team here and they are only taking the top two in each (diving) event. There are a lot of good divers around. I was shaking up there.'
Louganis rolled up 680.19 points to 658.68 for David Burgering, who, like Lougains, is from Mission Viejo. Mark Bradshaw of Springfield, Ore., wound up third with 613.23 points.
The men's diving competition at the Festival unveiled a number of new dives that have been approved by the international governing body for the sport.
Many of those dives have a 'degree of difficulty' larger than three.
'People aren't used to hearing of dives with that high a degree of difficulty,' said Louganis. 'You could tell that by their reaction tonight.
'They announced one dive I was going to do and it had a degree of difficulty of 3.3. You could hear people oooh and aaah.
'I started laughing right up there on the board. I thought to myself, 'this dive is too hard for me. How am I going to do this dive.''
The dive in question was a reverse, half somersault with three and a half twists. Louganis received scores of 7 and 7 out of a possible 10 from the judges for that dive.
Louganis will be the heavy favorite to add the platform title to his 3-meter crown. Platform preliminaries will be held tonight, with the finals set for Saturday evening.
