Los Alamitos resident Sydney Czaus is in Columbus, Ohio, for the U.S. Youth Olympic Games Trials.
Several years in the making, this is the first year of the Youth Olympics. The diving competition is only open to athletes born in 1993 and 1994 who compete at the national level. Five thousand athletes from 205 countries are expected in Singapore to compete in 26 sports including diving.
Two Junior Divers from McCormick Divers are scheduled to compete. McCormick Divers Head Coach, Charly Collins, says this is an amazing opportunity for Junior Divers to experience world level athletics.
With the tight age range and close qualifying scores of divers expected to attend, he believes Czaus has a good chance of receiving top scores in Columbus.
Top finishers in Columbus move on to the FINA qualifying event in Guadalajara, Mexico in March.
The competition has four main events on 3-meter springboard and platform competition separated into boys and girls.
The top nine finishers in each event move on to Olympic style competition in Singapore Aug. 14-26.
Czaus, a junior at Los Alamitos High School, has an excellent chance at moving on to the next leg. In 2009, Czaus broke all school diving records winning the CIF Sunset League Title.
Czaus trains at Los Alamitos High School and with McCormick Divers at the Belmont Plaza Pool.
Head coach Debby McCormick and Assistant Head Coach Charly Collins train the divers six days a week with extra platform training every week from Kim Berbari. All three are very familiar with international competition and excited to help these divers move up to the international competition level.
