The title of this article says a lot. I don't know what the answer is but the National Governing Body doesn't seem to be doing much to protect the sport on any front. It's far from following its recent Mission Statement. The "Plan" may be to watch the whole program fall apart. The intent of this article is to demonstrate that the sport is eroding and that erosion is not coming from any one direction.

Since 1998 I have been arguing for the Junior and Grass Roots section of diving. Costs were rising at a disproportional rate for the divers and coaches. Community pools were replacing diving boards with water slides. The shift from competitive to leisure pools continues to increase. Diving programs are being forced to run simultaneously with other programs or not run at all. Certifications are driving coaches away from US Diving rather than toward it. Safety and insurance concerns by US Diving were both blown well out of proportion.

Between all of this, suggestions from swim coaches at the high school level have been made to separate diving from swimming. The coaches suggesting this idea have lost meets (Championships) because of the diving event. My response to that has been if a contest was lost because a team didn't have butterfliers, would they suggest separating that event too? The word "separate" was wisely used. The suggestors didn't want to be viewed as the bad guys so the suggestion of separate rather than eliminate the event was proposed. If diving were a separate activity at the high school level, it would surely die. The reason is very simple…lack of pool time. These same swimming coaches would not release pool time for a diving program to operate. Luckily the administrators in this situation have ignored that idea thus far. Now we are seeing that the college level is losing the sport because of the budget axe/gender equity or whatever.

Diving is being confronted/lost at many levels concurrently and still the organization remains inflexible, unsympathetic and stands silent on all of these issues. That is definitely not in the best interest of anything. All that may be left is the elite diver. US Diving may get control of them but were will the future elite divers come from? I wonder how the Utopians view these issues? Reality is a place full of traps and we had better not get caught in any of them or diving will be just a fading memory. US Diving is mired in the trap of complacency.

At all levels of diving we are losing coaches, divers and programs. If diving is going to survive, we must somehow enlarge our numbers. By having large numbers we might be able to create a sense of need to include the sport in athletic programs. Diving is small and that may be an underlying reason for this predicament. Across the country kids are not beating down the door to get into diving programs. The limited television exposure diving gets isn't meeting the expectation to see this number increase. It appears to this observer that the organization needs to re-think its position and start doing something to re-build and strengthen our position in the sports' community. To continue on the present course leaves too much to chance and leads one to wonder what will we lose next?

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