Less than six months after his golden moment in Barcelona, Lenzi would lie in his bed in Ann Arbor, Mich., and sob. ““It just hit me like a brick wall,’’ he says.
The ““it’’ was post-Olympic depression, and it only got worse after he retired from competition in 1993. His life was reduced to three basic food groups: burgers, burritos and beer. Even when he had been competing, his 5-foot-5, 150-pound frame was stocky by diving standards. Now he ballooned to 185 pounds. ““I didn’t even recognize myself,’’ he says. ““I’m short and 5 pounds on me look like 10, 35 pounds look like 85.’’ The only reminder of his Barcelona triumph was the gold medal, which he hid in a sock. (““They don’t give you anything to put it in. I thought they’d give us a case.’’) It seemed almost to mock him, and he told a reporter – a misunderstanding, he now says – that he might sell it. Overnight, he moved from obscure Olympic star to symbol of an athlete on the skids.
Today, at 27, Mark Lenzi bears no resemblance to that sad sack. In the spring of ‘95, he mounted a comeback, though one that was slightly obscured at that time by Michael Jordan’s. (He considered sending Jordan a fax: ““I’m back, too.’’) One year later, Lenzi stunned his sport by breaking a record, held by America’s greatest diver, Greg Louganis, for highest score on a full series of dives. This weekend at the Olympic trials in Indianapolis, Lenzi will again mount the springboard in his quest to restore his reputation. ““When I’m diving well, I don’t think there’s anyone in the United States I should worry about,’’ he says.
Lenzi has always been cocky, and his show of confidence only masks the difficulties he has had to overcome. ““I was pretty burned out,’’ he says. Not to mention aggrieved that his 1992 triumph hadn’t secured his future. He took a stab at flight school, but – with his taste for twists and turns – showed aptitude as a fighter pilot though little commercial promise. Desperately seeking a future, Lenzi found it rooted in his past. One day he was aimlessly demonstrating how to turn somersaults into a pool when he discovered he was actually having fun. Moreover, the beauty of a comeback was that it would postpone those difficult decisions about life after diving. ““What’s the hurry to get a real job and start working 9 to 5?’’ he wondered. Still, he didn’t rush this decision either. He slept on it – for five months. Then one morning, he woke up and decided, ““I’m ready.’'
Mentally, not physically. At his first practices, Lenzi had to wear shorts because he couldn’t squeeze into his Speedos. After a rocky start with one former coach, he persuaded his college coach, Indiana University’s legendary Hobie Billingsley, to come out of retirement at 69. ““To get one last shot at this, it’s like an old cowboy who’s been off a horse for a long time,’’ says Billingsley, who could have been talking about either Lenzi or himself. ““Immediately it clicked,’’ says Lenzi.
It had first clicked a decade before when Billingsley, on the recommendation of one of his former divers, offered Lenzi a scholarship before ever seeing him perform. Mark had grown up a wrestling star in Virginia and started diving only at 18 after watching Louganis on TV. His wrestling prowess proved to be a huge asset. Top wrestlers have great strength-to-weight ratios, superb balance and tremendous agility. And Lenzi learned new tricks swiftly. ““If you listen to me,’’ Billingsley assured him, ““I’ll take you to the moon.’’ Just three years later, in 1989, Lenzi became a world champion. And three years after that, an Olympic gold-medalist.
Their secret, Lenzi says, is to keep things simple, or at least as simple as Isaac Newton’s laws of physics. Diving, Billingsley teaches, is a matter of mastering the law that for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Lenzi’s power and speed make him an explosive performer. What he can’t match are the esthetic lines and perfect ““rips’’ – splashless entries – of the slender Chinese divers. ““But he’s able to jump and he rides the board well,’’ says University of Michigan diving coach Dick Kimball, who has worked with Lenzi.
Lenzi has made his comeback a full-time commitment, living mainly on a $1,000-a-month stipend from the Olympic Committee. (He shares a house with some collegiate swimmers in Bloomington, Ind., sleeping in the basement – on the floor, actually, until he got a bed last month.) He spends about two hours a day in the pool and an additional three hours stretching, exercising and jumping off dry boards onto mats to perfect his takeoffs. ““It can be very boring at times, but the first thing you do in diving is the approach,’’ he says. ““You’ve got to be able to land on the end of the board every time.’’ Like many divers, he suffers from an aching back and badly bruised shoulders – he hits the water at roughly 20 mph. Now he keeps his shoulders strong and loose by attaching a bungee cord to a pole and pulling at it.
He recently began 8:30 p.m. workouts to prepare for the nighttime Olympic finals. That suits Lenzi just fine. He seldom goes to bed before 2 a.m., a night owl who, on occasion, still whiles away the evening hours at his favorite bars. For real relaxation, like aging athletes everywhere, he’s taken up golf. ““I’m not a hermit,’’ he says. ““I still enjoy beer. I just don’t get trashed.''
Will he get trashed in Atlanta? With his aches and painsand creeping age, Lenzi goes in as both defending champ and an underdog. But he’s lost none of his fierce competitive streak. ““Mark is a throwback, the type of a diver who really enjoys the pressure and always finds a way to win,’’ says U.S. Diving’s Steve McFarland. But this time he’ll arrive at the Games a lot less starry-eyed – and with a game plan for life after diving that doesn’t depend on Hollywood’s passion for swimming comedies. He plans to retire immediately, then resume studies at Indiana for a degree in meteorology. In 23 years, he wants to join the senior PGA tour. Olympic fame can be fleeting. Weather, like golf, is forever.
DIAGRAM: Gymnast in a Swimsuit
Mark Lenzi won the gold in 1992 with perfect 10s on a difficult dive: a forward 3 1/2 somersault in a pike (bent waist, straight legs) position. Here’s how it is done:
A good “hurdle” required bringing one leg up, then back down, to depress the board while maintaining balance.
The faster and tighter the somersaullts the better. The diver should come out of his tuck level with the springboard.
The diver achieves a perfect “rip entry” in a vertical position. Underwater, he pushes his arms out, creating a vacuum that sucks in the water and slows him down.
