Samantha Bromberg wins Bronze at World Championship

Ohio State Diving Club's Samantha (Murphy) Bromberg won the bronze medal on Platform at the 2010 FINA Junior World Championships held late July in Tucson, Arizona.

Most impressive about Bromberg’s medal was that she had to fight to overcome her nerves to have a chance to make the finals. She was in 19th place with two rounds to go in the preliminaries, and only the top 12 divers advance to the finals. Bromberg had the second-highest score in the sixth round to jump to 13th, and then had the fourth-best score in the last round to land in 10th place to earn a spot in the finals.

“In the prelims, I was incredibly nervous. I’ve never experienced anything like this competition before,” said Bromberg, who was diving in her first world competition. “I came out in the finals with nothing to lose.”

In the finals, she scored 66 points on her first dive, a front 3 ½ that had earned her just 34.50 points in the prelims. She then scored 70.40 points on her inward 3 ½ tuck in the next round to vault her into medal contention.

“I saw I was in third after my inward, but I just tried to think about the things my coach told me,” said Bromberg, who closed out the competition with 65.25 points on her front 2 ½ with 1 twist to secure her medal.