Sarah Bacon was going to quit diving three years ago. Except she did not make the U.S. team for the Tokyo Olympics.
Now, after years of injury and disappointment, the Indianapolis diver is an Olympian.
Next up? Maybe a medal in Paris.
Bacon teamed with Kassidy Cook to win synchronized 3-meter springboard Monday on night 1 of the Olympic Trials at Knoxville, Tenn.
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“We faced a lot of obstacles over the last couple of months together, years honestly,” Bacon told USA Diving. “Injuries and all that kind of stuff, so just coming through all of that and making my first Olympic and her second Olympic team. I don’t have any words right now for it.”
The Bacon/Cook team scored 629.82 points over two rounds of five dives each. They were comfortably ahead of Alison Gibson and Krysta Palmer, 599.49. Gibson/Palmer had beaten Bacon/Cook to secure the 2021 synchro berth.
Bacon and Cook led through every round of the final. They closed it out with 70.20 points on their last dive, a front 2 ½ somersault with one twist, earning mostly 7.5s and 8s. Once they hit the water, they were Olympians.
“They’ve done it! That was tremendous,” said NBC analyst Cynthia Potter, an Indiana University graduate who was a three-time Olympian and 1976 bronze medalist.
Cook, 29, a 2016 Olympian, became the first female diver to make non-consecutive U.S. Olympic teams. To celebrate the occasion, she slipped an Olympic ring on Bacon’s finger.
“To be able to share this Olympics with Sarah, and do synchro, means everything in the world to me,” Cook said.
The duo finished fourth at last year’s World Championships, less than one point from a bronze medal.
Bacon was third in the 2021 trials on individual 3-meter at Indianapolis, and top two made it.
“The last Olympics were bittersweet. It was over COVID, and I was one of the favorites to make that team — I would say in both synchro and individual,” she said.
“It just lit a fire underneath me. Honestly, I was planning on retiring after that Olympics, so it kept me diving. I wanted to make an Olympic team.”
She has prelims and semifinals on 3-meter Thursday and the final Saturday.
Bacon, 27, was a high school state champion for Cardinal Ritter in 2013 and 2014. She endured so many stress fractures in her back throughout teenage years that she was honored by USA Diving in 2014 with the Wendy Wyland Award for overcoming adversity. While in college, she had shoulder surgery.
She became one of the most decorated college divers ever. She won two NCAA titles on 3-meter and three on 1-meter while at Minnesota. Bacon was the Big Ten’s female athlete of the year in 2021, winning two NCAA titles and a World Cup silver medal.
She has two World Championships silver medals on 1-meter, which is not an Olympic event. In 2019, Bacon became the first female American diver to win a world or Olympic individual medal since Laura Wilkinson was world champion on 10-meter platform in 2005.
Contact IndyStar correspondent at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: After years of setbacks, Sarah Bacon finally makes USA Olympics diving
