Diver Stramandi stars at World University Games

Leonardo DiCaprio may have been somewhat delusional when he declared himself to be the king of the world, but senior diver Danielle Stramandi's situation is somewhat different. She could make a similar claim without being institutionalized.

Stramandi has led the Princeton diving team for the last three years and holds the school record in the one-meter springboard. She has dominated the diving scene at the national level and was named a first-team All American twice.

This summer, Stramandi extended her diving eminence across international borders as she began her reign as the queen of the water world.

In August, Stramandi journeyed to Beijing, to participate in the World University Games, which lasted from Aug. 20-Sept. 1, as one of six divers representing the United States.

Although Stramandi only planned to participate in the 10-meter platform, the illness of teammate Nicci Fusaor of the University of Southern California made it necessary for Stramandi to compete in four additional events.

"With the Chinese, Russian and Korean divers in the competition, I was competing against the best-trained, most consistent athletes in the world. Certainly, I was at a disadvantage competing in events at this international competition without prior training," Stramandi said.

Stramandi proved more than up to the task, making it to the finals in three of her five events — the 10-meter platform, the three-meter springboard synchro and the 10-meter platform synchro.

At the end of the semifinals, Stramandi was in ninth place in the 10-meter platform. A low score on her last dive of the final round, which had a 2.9 degree of difficulty, left Stramandi in 12th place with 258.3 points for the event.

Stramandi then teamed up with Rachel Kunkel of Brigham Young to place fifth in the three-meter springboard synchro and eighth in the 10-meter platform synchro. Stramandi finished the competition as the highest-scoring U.S. diver and led the team to a fifth-place finish in the final rankings.

Stramandi qualified for the team based on her performance at the 2001 Indoor National Diving Championships. The top male and female on the 3-meter and the platform made the squad along with the diver with the best combined score for both events.

There were 6,675 participants in the 21st Universiade, the most the competition has ever seen. The U.S. finished second overall with 21 gold medals and 13 silver and bronze medals. China won the competition with 54 gold medals. Russia and Japan rounded out the top four teams.

In addition to her success at the 2001 World University Games, Stramandi has competed in both the Indoor National Diving Championship and the NCAA Division I Championship this year. She placed in both meets on the platform, finishing fourth at the Indoor National Diving Champion-ship with a score of 437.76 and third at the NCAA Championship.

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Her third-place finish is the highest any individual Princeton swimmer or diver has ever finished at the national competition.

Stramandi was also the top finisher in platform diving at the U.S. Diving Senior Geographic Zone A Championships. She finished third in the platform diving finals at the Swimming and Diving Championships, the meet which determines the All-American teams, with a score of 445.15.

For Stramandi, the glory days are hardly over as she heads into her senior year of competition. And the international stage is still wide open. Stramandi is currently training for the World Cup Trials in the spring where hopefully she will be able to extend her territory, mastering even more of the wet world.