Freshman diver trains for Olympics

Smart looks to conquer the Kansas high school competition in her first year.

The first time freshman Ellie Smart competed in a dive meet, she was only five-years-old. For many years however, diving was not her main sport. Ellie was a gymnast until she tore all of the ligaments in her ankles over the course of her gymnastics career, a common injury for the sport. She had to leave school at 1:40 p.m. everyday for practice, and when she started missing out on social events, she decided to quit.

“I didn’t love [gymnastics] like I used to, and it wasn’t worth it anymore,” Ellie said

After quitting gymnastics, Ellie decided to dive competitively. The decision to dive was a natural transition for Ellie — she had been diving with the Carriage Club every summer for eight years. She joined the Jayhawk Dive Club in 2009. Eric Elliot, the owner and head coach of the club, had seen Ellie dive in country club meets and expressed interest in her. Ellie practices with her team five or six nights a week for two hours in KU’s Robinson Hall. Robbie Smart, Ellie’s father, said that the amount of time it takes to compete at Ellie’s level has been the hardest part about the experience.

“It takes a lot of time and practice to get to where she’s at, but it pays off in the end,” Robbie said. “She puts in so much time and has improved so much. It’s great to see.”

Five or six days a week, Ellie drives to Lawrence for practice. For the first 30 minutes, Ellie does dry land training on a trampoline. While on the trampoline, she is secured by a belt which allows her to practice the dives and technique before getting into the pool. For the rest of the practice, Ellie dives constantly. On weekends, Ellie travels to different cities around the country to compete in United States regional diving meets with her club. The meets are the way divers qualify for Olympics and USA Dive Nationals.

“It’s really competitive and I compete with kids from all over the country to get to Nationals,” Ellie said.

Ellie has made it to Nationals the past two years and placed second on tower — a platform that ranges from five to ten meters high, last year, her biggest achievement in diving. This year, Ellie moved out of the Under-14 group and into the Under-16 group, where she will one of the youngest competitors. The jump will give her more competition. Despite this move, she still believes she has a good chance at making Nationals. According to Ellie, the reason for her success is that she gets to control how she does and does not have to rely on others.

“I control how hard I work and what I get out of it,” Ellie said.

Tim Davidson, who has been coaching Ellie for a year and a half at the Jayhawk Dive Club, said that Ellie works her hardest every day and is very coachable.

“She works hard every day for both coaches,” Davidson said. “She listens and is open to doing whatever she needs to get better.”

Davidson believes that if Ellie continues on the path that she is on, she has a great chance of making the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Ellie has trained in Indianapolis with the national training center, which is where the top eight divers in the nation live and train. The coaches told her that she had great potential.

“I felt amazing when they told me that,” Ellie said. “Sometimes I don’t get the outcome I want, but when someone like that tells you that you have potential, you know all the hard work is paying off.”

Ellie began diving for East in March, and dive coach Shelly King already sees great talent and potential. King has seen Ellie diving for many years at country club meets, but never knew her well. King’s first impression of Ellie was that she was very focused, interested in being part of the team and enthusiastic about the sport.

“She has an impeccable work ethic for someone her age,” King said. “Every day when she comes in she’s focused and knows what she needs to work on and do.”

Ellie said that the hardest thing about diving at such a high level is that everyone develops at a different stage. Most divers hit their peak in the 20s, not in high school.

“It’s a really slow process,” Ellie said. “There are so many basic things you have to achieve before you can move on. It’s hard to know that you’ll get better eventually.”

Ellie plans to dive in college and has been talked to by coaches from Purdue, Minnesota and Duke. Her dream is to dive for Stanford. Beyond swimming in college, one of Ellie’s dreams is to make it to the Rio Olympics.

“If I don’t reach that because it’s really hard,” Ellie said, “I definitely want to make the US National team and get to travel around the world to dive for them.”