HOUSTON, Texas, July 17. JUST days after we reported that Vipa Bernhardt has sued her way onto the German Olympic roster, the U.S. Diving world felt its own litigious impact when Laura Wilkinson and Jessica Livingston sued for a spot on the U.S. Olympic roster as the women's synchro platform duo.
According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, Wilkinson and Livingston have claimed that a USA Diving selection committee overlooked the team's performance at selection camp when choosing Haley Ishimatsu and Mary Beth Dunnichay to the team.
The Chronicle reports that "even though Wilkinson and Livingston had a higher average score for the four lists, 329.88 to 327.32, a USA Diving selection committee picked the Ishimatsu-Dunnichay team because it had the best individual score (346.98) of the four rounds of dives and because it had a higher score under a formula known as "projected competition score," according to the complaint."
The Chronicle went on to report that "attorneys for Wilkinson and Livingston say in the complaint that USA Diving's selection criteria are too broadly drawn to meet the standard required by the USOC for team selection proceedings. They also say the committee violated its own procedures and that the use of the projected competition score is a less effective means that the average score on which to base the selection process."
Full text of Houston Chronicle article.