10 meters. 33 feet. A three-story building. Doesn’t matter.
Janelle Lucas thrives at that height. Never mind that from that platform she will be launching herself into a pool of water 18 feet deep. Not enough? She’ll be spinning and twisting on her 1.44-second descent.
“I really love it,” said Lucas, a freshman from Mission Viejo, Calif., who had her first taste of diving’s highest dive when she was 14. “When you go platform, it’s all up to you. It doesn’t move. It’s right there.”
There is no doubt Lucas’ background as a gymnast is a big part of her success but there is something extra, says coach Jim Southerland, that has enabled her to advance to the Zone Diving Championships her first year in college.