Aug. 25, 2004

ATHENS, Greece – USC sophomore Tracey Richardson finished 28th in the prelims of the 3m springboard competition at the Athens Olympics today.

Richardson scored with a score of 209.34 points to finish 28th. She would have needed to finish in the top 18 to advance to Thursday’s semi-finals.

She was coached by USC Head Diving Coach Todd Sherritt who had this say about Richardson’s effort: “Her first three dives were good, solid and consistent. She was in 18th place at that point,” said Sherritt, who also coached 1996 Olympian Vivian Alberty and 2000 Olympian Michelle Davidson. “Her fourth dive she was ok. She did a gang twister on her fifth dive and her knees buckled on the board. She felt pretty bad. She gave it a good shot and she really went after it. Her expectations were to get in the top 18 and she didn’t dive good enough today – it just wasn’t her day.

“But she isn’t near done yet. This is her first Olympics and she certainly wants to keep training to 2008,” continued Sherritt. “This is her third international competition and will help her this year at the SEC and the NCAA Championships. The large crowd will help her. Now granted, the competition is a lot stiffer here than the NCAAs but the NCAA meet might be the toughest meet in the world behind the Olympic Games. She is already the SEC champion and she will come back after redshirting for a year to not only win the SEC title but to also win her first NCAA title. We are proud of Tracey and look forward to her returning to Columbia to continue her education and to continue to dive.”