Former Idaho diver Paige Hunt trying to make Olympic trials
For some athletes, competing at the college level isn’t enough — they want to push their careers to the next level.
This is the case for former Idaho diver and 2013 WAC Diver of the Year Paige Hunt.
Omar Ojeda | Courtesy
Former Idaho diver Paige Hunt dives Feb. 16 at the University of Arizona. Hunt is training in Arizona in pursuit of competing in the Olympics.
Hunt, a 23-year-old from Mesa, Arizona, graduated from Idaho last May, but decided to continue her diving career by receiving training from Team USA and Arizona dive coach Omar Ojeda.
Hunt said she wanted to continue diving after her Idaho career because she simply felt like she wasn’t done diving.
“I felt like I haven’t reached my potential to see how far I could go,” Hunt said.
There are multiple diving events in the Olympics, but Hunt will focus on the 3-meter dive.
Hunt said her ultimate goal is to make it to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Indianapolis. The event determines who will represent the United States at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Before Hunt moved to Tucson, Arizona, for training, Idaho dive coach Kelly Gufford said she sent Hunt’s recruiting videos to Ojeda and spent hours on the phone with him talking about if Hunt was ready for the challenge of competing with some of the best divers in the country.
Hunt has risen to the occasion as she has been training under the guidance of Ojeda for about 10 months.
Gufford said Ojeda doesn’t work with divers he thinks won’t be able to challenge divers from other countries.
“NAU (Northern Arizona) is our biggest diving rival in our conference,” Gufford said. “We’re trying to beat NAU. He’s trying to beat Team China. I mean, really to put it into perspective. So he’s not going to just work with someone just to give them a chance.”
Hunt took 22nd in the 1-meter dive at the 2014 USA Diving Winter National Championships in December. One of Hunt’s training partners, Arizona redshirt senior Samantha Pickens, won the event.
When Hunt graduated from Idaho last spring, she left the school as arguably the best diver in Vandal history.
Gufford said Hunt holds the school record in the platform dive and had broken all the school diving records until her former teammate Mairin Jameson broke her 1-meter and 3-meter dive records at the 2014 WAC Championships.
Now Hunt is training in Tucson at the University of Arizona, which is almost a two-hour drive from her hometown of Mesa.
Hunt said her training in Arizona is more intense than her training at Idaho. She trains about four to six hours a day, which she said includes dry land, water and weight lifting activities.
The biggest challenge has been gaining muscle and in turn, weight, Hunt said.
“I’ve been trying hard with whey protein shakes and eating way more protein than I am used to in general,” Hunt said. “So that’s been the hardest thing that I’ve had to deal with.”
Gufford said Hunt has unlimited potential and that she can transform as a diver, wich is what Ojeda has done with her.
“He has embraced training her and pushing her beyond her limits, and it’s not easy,” Gufford said. “It’s not easy being pushed outside your comfort zone every single day. He’s a tough coach, but he’s a world-class coach and he’s getting results out of her that she never thought were possible.”
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at [email protected]