Diver Kelly McCormick Drops Out of Olympic Festival With Back Injury

DURHAM, N.C. —  The U.S. Olympic Festival lost a major attraction Tuesday when star diver Kelly McCormick dropped out because of a back injury suffered several weeks ago.

McCormick, eight-time U.S. springboard champion, was the silver medalist at the 1984 Olympics. She placed second at last year’s Festival behind Michele Mitchell, who will be seeking her third straight Festival championship when diving competition begins Thursday with women’s springboard preliminaries.

McCormick’s mother, Pat McCormick, was a two-time Olympic double gold medalist in the 1950s.

The Festival still has three diving medalists from the 1984 Olympics--double gold winner Greg Louganis and silver winners Bruce Kimball and Mitchell.

Only two of the 34 sports at the two-week Festival were in action Tuesday--swimming and wrestling.

In swimming, Sarah Anderson, a women’s freestyler, and Chas Morton, competing in the men’s individual medley, smashed records.

Anderson, 17, of Moreno Valley, Calif., won the women’s 200-meter freestyle in 2 minutes 3.67 seconds, erasing the meet mark of 2:04.12, set by Mary Wayte in 1981.

Morton, 16, of Franklin, Tenn., shattered the national age group record in the 15-16 category in winning the men’s 200 individual medley in 2:07. The previous mark was 2:07.35 by Doug Gjertsen in 1984.

Anderson, who will be a freshman at California in the fall, also swam on the North A team that broke the Festival record in the women’s 800 freestyle relay.

She combined with Sheri Smith, 17, of Hacienda Heights; Mary Petry, 13, of Annapolis, Md., and Nadine Takai, 17, of Waipahu, Hawaii, for a clocking of 8:22.03. The old mark of 8:22.76 was set last year by the South A team.