Kelci Bryant talks about water the way most people talk about felons. The Gophers diver describes how it assaults her skin and twists her limbs, and she has a much better relationship with water than the woman who introduced her to it does.
Kelci's mother, Kathie, fell off a boat when she was young and almost drowned. Kathie didn't shield her children from the water. She tossed them in.
"My goal was that if my kids fell off a boat in the middle of a lake, that they would be able to swim to shore," Kathie said.
Years later, Kelci has forged a new relationship with water. She tries to disturb it as little as possible upon entry. Four years after finishing fourth in the 3-meter synchronized diving in the Beijing Olympics, Bryant intends to win a medal in London while her mother watches wearing T-shirts she designed. Competition begins at 9 a.m. Twin Cities time Sunday.
"Taking your ultimate fear and turning it into perfection is the best thing in the world," Kelci said. "There's always the chance of hitting the water wrong. It can give you welts. It stings. It can do some damage. But overcoming all of that is so rewarding. That's what I love about it."
Having protected her daughter from drowning, Kathie might have wanted to consider bubble-wrap to protect her from everything else. Kelci thought of danger the way most kids think of sugar. She hinted at her talent when she was about 3 by vaulting over the family couch.
"It was very scary," Kathie said. "I thought, 'I have to get her into a gym so she can do it correctly and not break her neck.' That's how she started in gymnastics, and she switched to diving in sixth grade."
Each of Kathie's five children was athletic, and one of her older sisters, Katie Beth, was a champion diver at the University of Miami. Kelci, too, figured out how to enter the water like a cat burglar.
