This Week in Hurricanes History: Redemption for Dinsmore
By Camron Ghorbi
HurricaneSports.com
The scene that unfolded after the fourth round of diving at the IUPUI Natatorium on March 25 2017, was, in short, a microcosm.
Just a redshirt freshman then, the ever-confident David Dinsmore emerged from the pool and walked over to his mentor, Miami diving coach Randy Ableman, on the deck.
“I could have used that one a year ago,” Dinsmore said, jokingly, after his back 3 ½ tuck – the same dive that ultimately kept him from qualifying for the 2016 U.S. Olympic team less than 12 months earlier.
Ableman laughed with him, knowing an NCAA national championship for his young protégé, and a chance at redemption, was just two dives away.
It was Dinsmore’s first return to the pool, the water where he was vanquished by the same foe that ended on top a year earlier – by a mere 10 points. In addition to Purdue’s Steele Johnson, other accomplished divers in the field included Ohio State’s Zhipeng Zeng and Brandon Loschiavo, also of the Boilermakers.
“For my first NCAAs, I was excited,” Dinsmore said. “I had been diving against all these guys for the past 10 years, so I knew most of them. I’ve competed at a high level with a lot of them. A lot of guys on the final were on their respective national teams, so it was a very high-caliber meet.
“I like high-level competitions. I’m one that likes competing where there’s pressure because I’m a gamer.”
Asked about his reflections from the meet three years later, Ableman said the real tale begins one year earlier, where Dinsmore’s heart was ripped out after missing the chance to represent Team USA, falling just short of Johnson.
“It was odd that was held in the same pool as the Olympic trials and the divers he was up against were the same divers that he competed against in those trials,” Ableman said. “It was extremely special. I’ve never seen a kid that distraught after the Olympic trials. It just tore him apart.
“I think that edge has continued. Not just in that competition, but for the last four years leading up to this Olympics. He has been on a mission. It hasn’t gone perfect…but when the chips are down, for the most part, he has been just spot-on.”
Before he ever had a chance at an NCAA title, Dinsmore needed to earn one of a handful of coveted spots in the night’s finals on the platform – no small feat for any redshirt freshman making his NCAA Men’s Diving Championships debut.
“When I go into a prelim, I don’t want to have the list of my life because we’re saving that for finals,” Dinsmore said. “The only goal I have is to make finals, land on my head for each dive and build off of it. It’s a warm-up list.”
Dinsmore qualified easily and later on was one of eight divers introduced in front of a packed arena – right after Johnson.
“We’ve always gone back and forth in international competitions, sometimes he’d follow me or I’d follow him. It was cool,” Dinsmore said. “I got to throw ‘The U’ up and remind everyone else how much better it is than everyone else’s symbols.”
Dinsmore’s mentality had changed entering the meet – he’d no longer isolate himself or listen to music in his headphones between dives. He decided to sit next to Ableman, calculate scores in his head and chat about other divers (or “talk smack,” as Ableman puts it).
He breezed through his first few dives in the night’s finals.
“He just got off to the most incredible start. He was so focused and locked in and I was a bit nervous for him because I wanted it so badly for him,” Ableman recalled. “He had it on lockdown from the very first dive. He did his first dive for all 9s and he never looked back.”
The fast start set the stage for the pivotal fourth dive – the back 3 ½ tuck that he missed off the same board the previous June, where he scored just 60 points and had his Olympic dream fizzle.
“I hit my first dive and I was excited about that, so we kept hanging out and talking and chatting and keeping a good energy,” Dinsmore recalled. “After the third round, the only thing we were going to do was be positive.”
He scored in the high-80’s this time, knowing an NCAA title was within reach.
“When I put down that fourth dive, it was like a huge weight was lifted off our shoulders,” he said.
Dinsmore’s chance at redemption was impressive regardless of competition. That the Olympian he toppled captured the NCAA 1-meter and 3-meter springboard titles in the two previous nights made it even more remarkable.
He clinched the title with 95.40 points on his final dive, a back 2 ½ with 2 ½ twists, and slapped the water in celebration. Johnson finished second.
You see, that’s what separates Dinsmore from the other 12 national champions Ableman has coached: the underlying belief that he will come out on top.
“When the lights go on, his ability to totally believe he is the best and that he’s going to come through, is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Ableman said. “He’ll be on the 10-meter, he’ll be on his last dive and he’ll need whatever it is to win – 8s or 9s – to win the competition. He’ll look down at me from the board and give me a little wink, like, ‘I got this.’
“It just makes me laugh. He’s a special athlete.”
That’s not to say the ride hasn’t had its fair share of bumps.
Dinsmore has struggled with a herniated disc through his undergraduate career, came just short of winning a second NCAA title in 2019 and now will miss out on both the NCAA Championships and a shot at the Olympics in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Still, though, the New Albany, Ohio, native stands as one of the most decorated divers in Miami history. He won four straight Atlantic Coast Conference gold medals, is a three-time NCAA All-American and was named the USA Diving Athlete of the Year in 2017. He has won a silver medal at the World University Games, won multiple medals at the FINA World Cup and earned his country spots in the Olympics.
This magnificent, magical run – encompassing all manner of domestic and international fame, and thousands upon thousands of frequent flyer miles – all started in Indianapolis.
“That will forever be my favorite moment in my career because I proved to myself that I could really battle anything and come back better than before,” he said. “Those Olympic trials crushed me. It was something I dreamed about my whole life and to come back and end up No. 1, with the same guys and prove that I was good enough, that I’m as good as the way I competed…I had a lot of emotions.
“Whether at Miami or for Team USA, I know that will forever be my favorite moment in my career.”
