FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM University of Hawaii diver QiongJie Huang won the 1-meter event Friday at the NCAA championships.

Taking a dive
into the record book

QiongJie Huang has taken
Hawaii to a whole new level with
her NCAA diving championship

C.W. PACK SPORTS / UH MEDIA RELATIONS

She's an NCAA champion in 1-meter springboard. She's a product of the youth program in China, which is to diving what Romania is to gymnastics.

And the Olympic Games are in Beijing in 2008, in her home country. She will be 26 then, prime age for most athletes.

So why does University of Hawaii junior QiongJie Huang laugh when you ask about her Olympic goals?

Because she has none.

"No, they've already got the team chosen," Huang said, shaking her head poolside at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatics Center yesterday. "And there's no 1-meter in the Olympics.

"I'm 23 now, so the most important thing is I finish school," said the junior in travel industry management. "I'm still a citizen of China, and everyone my age there is done with school. The education is first. If I still have energy, we'll see."

Energy is what got Huang into diving. UH's first individual national champion in any sport since 1983 was a hyperactive, physical kid, so her parents got her into sports.

"I've always liked the water, the beach," she said. "But I actually started diving late, age 8."

But by 17, Huang thought she might have had enough of the rigorous training.

"Their system is pretty amazing. Being a diver in China is like playing for Bobby Knight for 10 years," UH coach Mike Brown said.

Huang took two years off from the sport. She returned energized.

Then, a little more than two years ago, she got a call from UH assistant swimming coach JaiLin Sun, the Rainbows' China connection. Sun has also recruited swimmer Yan Chen and diver Rui Wang.

"I never thought I might go to college in the United States," Huang said. "But I thought Hawaii's a nice place, it might be fun."

She'd been to the U.S. before, for meets and training. But most of Huang's early images of America were gleaned from Orlando, Fla., and Reno, Nev. After Disney World and casinos, how strange could living in Hawaii be?

If not for her persistence, Huang might have never found out.

Huang's first stab at English was when she was in Orlando for competition, when she was 13. She figured she could learn the language via her host family's VCR.

"The problem was they only had one movie, so I watched it over and over," she says.

After 30 viewings of "Grease," Huang still considers herself a John Travolta fan. And the goal was accomplished. "It helped my English," Huang says.

It still needed some work, though. It took her two years to pass the written English test required of foreign students to enroll at UH. She wouldn't quit.

"She's very persistent," Brown said. "If she went to a class and didn't understand, she'd go find the professor after class."

QiongJie Huang: Was re-energized after taking two years off from diving

Language -- spoken or written -- is no longer a barrier. Huang was an academic All-American last year with a 3.66 grade-point average. And with the tenacity that helped her learn a foreign language, Huang rehabbed from a painful shoulder injury this past offseason.

Huang is a natural athlete, but not a natural diver. One reason she is not on the Chinese national team is her height -- 5-foot-3. The prototype is longer and leaner.

The 1-meter is her best event because it accentuates her power and athleticism, Brown said.

"She uses it to her advantage. At the NCAAs, there were a lot of good divers, but she separated herself by being able to jump higher," the coach said.

Huang added consistency to her game last week at the Purdue pool in West Lafayette, Ind. She scored a pool-record 327 points to win the 1-meter. She also placed fourth in the 3-meter and 18th in platform.

"It was the best meet I ever had, overall," she said. "I knew it was the best I could do, and I could be happy with any result. Almost every dive was better than what I practiced."

The top-level divers in China are celebrities. Athens gold medalist Guo Jingjing has turned her fame into endorsement and modeling opportunities.

Huang isn't sure how she feels about that, about sports evolving into something else.

"It was her decision to turn it into a commercial thing. Everything has two sides, good and bad," she said.

She says it matter-of-factly, with no jealousy or guile.

QiongJie Huang won't be in the 2008 Olympics. But she has no regrets, no self-doubts about taking those two years off, no nagging questions about the path chosen.

She's an NCAA champion, and she's a business student in Hawaii who surfs Waikiki when she has some time.

What could be wrong with that?

Note: National 1-meter champion QiongJie Huang and other UH divers and swimmers will be featured on ESPN2's coverage of the 2005 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, Friday at 9 a.m.