MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Aquatic Center at Mylan Park will begin a new era in hosting the 2022 USA Diving Winter Nationals Dec. 14-18.
Aquatic Center Director of Aquatics Jennifer Lainhart said this is an opportunity for the public to come see more than 100 world-class divers and a dress rehearsal for the U.S. Olympic Diving Trials in 2024 that could be coming to the facility.
“This is the largest event we’ve hosted to date and we hope to continue moving up that pole because we think we have the facility for these large diving events,” Lainhart said.
Planning for this week has been ongoing for the last several months and spearheaded by Lainhart, USA Diving Event Director Mike Retcher, Visit Mountaineer Country Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and local elected officials.
During a recent conference call, USA Diving President Lee Michaud praised the group effort.
“I’ve been really impressed with the enthusiasm, with the integrity and with the actual love and passion for sports that you guys show,” Michaud said. “It’s really coming through and it makes a difference.”
The field of competitors includes several world champions, eight Olympians and many who are making their first splash in a major event. Michaud said spectators have an opportunity to watch the divers in competition as they vie for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Diving Team.
“These are the people you’re going to see diving in the Olympic in six years in Los Angeles. Then you have other folks that are going to be diving in the Olympics in a two years in Paris and you have the people who have spent the majority of their lives training,” Michaud said.
The schedule does include a last chance event for divers with close to qualifying scores to make the competition. The facility will host the Winter National Qualifier Dec. 12-13 to add divers for the five-day championship.
The competition begins Wednesday and event championships are held Sunday. Events include men/women spring board and platform events from 1-meter, 3-meters and 10-meters.
“Athletes 10 meters in the air throwing an insane amount of rotations, revolutions, twists and flips so for the public those are the cool events where they’re seeing a lot,” Retcher said.
The bid for the 2024 U. S. Olympic Trials is under review and a final decision is expected early next year. The site selection team has already made a site visit. Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom said Monongalia County is a finalist to host the event.
All-session tickets including the Winter National Qualifier and USA Winter Diving National Championships are $80 for adults, $45 for children 4 to 17-years old and veterans. Single-session tickets are $20 for adults, $12 for children 4 to 17-years old. West Virginia residents can receive one free youth ticket or all-session ticket per paying adult.