Falling short a learning experience for Loukas
By Melissa Isaacson | Chicago Tribune Olympic Bureau
August 18, 2008

BEIJING — Amid the disappointment of finishing out of medal contention in the women's 3-meter springboard finals Sunday night, U.S. Olympic diver Christina Loukas could not hide her admiration for Chinese gold medalist Jingjing Guo.

"I did watch her, even though I'm not supposed to," the 22-year-old Riverwoods resident said with a smile. "I can't help it. ... I started this sport because I love to watch it. I knew, especially after my fourth dive, I wasn't going to be in the medals, so I tried to enjoy what I could."

The fourth of Loukas' five dives was her undoing. Her reverse 21/2 somersault in the pike position scored just a 42.0, and Loukas was on her way to finishing ninth.

No one could catch Guo, whose 84-point score on her second dive and 88.35 on her third made the evening anticlimactic as she won her second straight gold medal in this event. Julia Pakhalina of Russia won the silver, 16.75 points behind Guo. Minxia Wu of China took the bronze.

American Nancilea Foster, 24, finished just ahead of Loukas.

Foster, who overcame the trauma of slamming face-first into the board on a dive when she was 14, said she was unsure about her future in the sport.

"Whether I come back or not, I'm satisfied with what happened tonight," she said.

For Loukas, there is no question.

"For sure," she said. "I don't want to think about that one dive ruining my whole trip here. It's been awesome. I love the Olympics. It's just been a great experience, all the people, the venues. It makes you want to train that much harder to make it back here in four years."

In the meantime, the diver whose father, George, owns the famed Cubby Bear and other Wrigleyville properties will return to classes at Indiana University in Bloomington, but she's not in a hurry.

"The first thing I'm going to do," she said, "I'm going to go home to a Cubs game."

Riverwoods Will Be Represented at Beijing
By a Former Swim Team Mom

Christina Loukas of Riverwoods earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team by winning the 3-meter springboard diving final at the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. She had an astonishing lead of 90 points over the second place diver. Loukas began the competition with 25 bonus points as a result of having placed fourth in February's World Cup at the Olympic Aquatics Center in Beijing. She currently is ranked 29th in the world in the 3-meter event. Loukas already had enough points to win before her last dive, but she hit it for a string of 9s and 9.5s. On the deck, she blew a kiss to the crowd and hugged coach Jeff Huber. No one came close to her overall score of 1092.10.

Friends and supporters gathered around the pool and their televisions to cheer for the diver many of us remember watching during meets at Deerfield High School. As surprising as her lead was to the sportscasters, it wasn't unfamiliar to her fans from Deerfield and Riverwoods. Christina won the Illinois High School state diving championship three straight years (2001-03) and she was second as a freshman in 2000.

As a student at Indiana University, Christina went on to capture three Big Ten Diver of the Year awards (2005, 2006, 2007), and won the Big Ten Championship on three events in 2007 and the one-meter title in 2006.

22-year old Christina is the daughter of our neighbors, George and Patty Loukas.

Riverwoods residents all wish her lots of luck in August. We'll be cheering for her!