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ded, Outhbert had made up her mind to retire. She Joined a friend in France and “tookthe first holiday in my life.”She said she will continueLONDON, Ont (CP)-Linda Cuthbert, a gold medallist at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, says she has lost her motivation to train and has retired from competitive diving.Cuthbert, whose 1980 season started with two heartbreaking events — the announcement of Canada's Olympic boycott and a disastrous accident on the springboard during the Olympic trials — also says she is no longer willing to put up with the continual problem of finding a training facility.“Every weekend, I would have to look for a new pool,” she said recently while visiting her parents in London.Cuthbert, 24, who lives in Toronto, is a member of the Markham Centennial Diving team. She said she was told last winter she could use the Markham pool for her springboard workouts, but the facility does not have a 10-metre tower — the discipline that brought her the gold medal at the Edmonton Games in 1978.As a result, she had to use the Etobicoke Olympium in west-end Toronto, or travel to Brantford where she and coach Jim Lambie would go through twice-a-day workouts three times a week. .Cuthbert began her nomadic liflestyle at age 14 when she moved away from home to train with national coach Don Webb in Winnipeg. A fourtime national champion, she made her first national teamin 1971.She first made news this year when she voiced her op- ' position to Canada’s boycott of the Moscow Olympics, saying she it would only hurt the athletes and have no more effect that did the African boycott of the 1976 Games in Montreal.La tec in the season, her dream of making an Olympic team — even though it would not compete in Moscow — ended when she smashed thebeck of heNttad on the threO-metre springboard while performing a double somersault at the Olympic trials at die Etobicoke Olympium.She was taken to hospital and for a few anxious hours it was feared she might have suffered a cracked vertebraein her neck. However, she wasdiagnosed as having a concussion and was released thenext day.“I didn’t remember a thing until I woke up and they were wheeling me down the hospitalhallway,” she said. Slowly 1 realised what had happened and I Just started swearing, Iwas so mad.“I remember a nurse saying to me that at least I was all right. I could have punched bar. She just didn’t understand that I wasn’t all right.”The accident had nothing to do with her decision to retire. In fact, Cuthbert said her disappointment at not making the Olympic team made her think twice about quitting. Italmost made me fed as though I had to go on.”In June, the Canadian Amateur Diving Association selected Cuthbert fora tour of HongKong; China and Japan.Cuthbert said the Asian tour was the most fascinating of her career. Not only did she see China, long a hidden territory for international athletes, but she scored a lifetime best of 405 points in the tower competition at Canton.But by the time the tour enher work as a dental hygenistand give sports broadcasting atry if an opportunity arises.However, she doubts anything will ever compare with her diving career. “You’re never going to be the best in the country at anything else. Diving was a big part of my life and you’ll never replace it.”
Newspaper Details
Medicine Hat News
Medicine Hat, Alberta, CA
Tue, Sep 16, 1980
Page 13
Full Page
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USA 14 Nov 2021
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