A University of Miami graduate is heading to Seattle in hopes of making the 2012 U.S. Olympic diving team.
Twenty-five-year-old Brittany Viola is a two-time national champion, but has just missed making the Olympic team twice.
"I want to be at the Olympics,” she said. “I want to represent my country."
Viola will try to conquer the world from 10 meters up again on June 17 during the diving trials. She finished as an alternate in 2004 and 2008.
"This time around, knowing that I've been so close two times, it's been a huge motivator the last four years," she said.
But Viola said she has also been through difficult times, especially when she underwent two ankle surgeries that kept her off the platform for 17 months.
“There were many times I just wanted to throw in the towel and give up because I was experiencing pain or doubt," she said.
Viola also battled bulimia her freshman year of college at UM.
"That's something I went through even before I went to college,” she said. “I developed an eating disorder. In the freshman year of my time at UM, I struggled with that. Leaving my family, trying to balance school, academics, new friends, new atmosphere. My relationship with God is the only thing that's moved me away to where I am now with food and with my body image.”
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But Viola's Olympic desire is also supported by other people in her life. She sees a sports psychologist, works with the same diving coach from her college days and gets pep talks from her dad Frank Viola, Jr. – a CY Young award winning pitcher and World Series MVP.
"He's been a huge encourager telling me to just be me, have fun,” she said about her father. “He'll love me whether I'm last, first or don't even compete. His love doesn't change."
But what has changed is her thinking. Viola said she now tries not thinking at all during competitions.
"What I realized is that when I turn my brain off, I dive the best I could ever dive,” she told NBC 6. “So that's what I need to do this trials and at the Olympics. Just enjoy what I'm doing and let my body do what it's trained to do."
Viola also hopes a change in how she holds her hands could help improve her entries into the water.
