It is surprising how well they go together. I’m not sure if I should be thanking or cursing the Japanese film crew for introducing to the best cheesecake that I have ever had. Immediately after I first tried it, within a few days I had an entire cheesecake in my fridge, and now for about two weeks, there has not been a day when I haven’t had cheesecake. Maybe it is was conspiracy?

Something crazy must have been happening for the women in the CNF qualification heats. I think it is possible that we were all under this cheesecake spell and many of us didn’t anticipate the effect this delectable dessert was going to have on our performances…

It is strange that 4 of the 6 deepest announced had issues on their dives. Hmmm I smell conspiracy, I think I will confront the film crew about this. Not that I am complaining since two of my biggest competitors had black outs at depths which should have been very easy for them. Over half the women had problems with their dives, there were more BO with 13 competitors then with the men with 27.

Personally I had a very sloppy dive, I got distracted by all of the underwater cameras, I think I passed four videographers before I passed 35 meters, not counting all of the photographers, so I was slightly distracted and not paying attention to my equalization. I swallowed my mouthful and that was my last equalization. I was in a lot of pain and I thought about turning early. I had my hand on the line and was about to turn when I looked down and saw the plate and decided to go a few more meters. I got the tag and made my depth, but I lost 5 points for grabbing the line.

Thank you to my coach Alexey, see us below, I felt very relaxed before my dive and had a nice easy warm up. I know what to expect tomorrow having to share my time in the deep with so many other people, so hopefully my ears and sinuses will be happy with me at 10:58 when I return to the surface.


It was an all around fantastic day for the men. The sun was shining all day, 11 national records, 7 men made the finals because of nice planning by the French team. It will be an interesting finals, I wonder how many of them were diving close to their limits? A few of the top seven looked very strong upon surfacing and others were a little shaky.

The woman finalists on the other hand, I do not predict seeing any big surprising, although rumor has it that Niki has her eye on the world record. Natalia is sure to do a solid clean deep performance, maybe even breaking her world record, Junko and Brigitte will likely add to their records, however there is always a chance that they may have a trick up their sleeves. Olga was pleasantly surprised to make it into the finals and I expect to see a clean, solid dive from her, slightly deeper then she did in the qualifying heats.

Today I rested and I was able to eat only one piece of cheesecake, this is what I look like two times a day, when I answer the call from the fridge…