Pair of Gophers to Try to Earn Spot to Tokyo in US Olympic Diving Trials

The 2021 US Olympic Trials in Diving are taking place this week in Indianapolis and a pair of current/former Minnesota Gophers are trying to earn a spot to Toyko on the US squad. Four-time NCAA Champion Sarah Bacon will have two opportunities to try and win a spot on the US team this week while Gopher men’s diver Jake Butler will try and earn his spot in one event.

Sarah Bacon is the former Gopher with the best chance to make it to the Olympics. The four-time NCAA Champion will have two chances to earn her spot, in the three meter synchro event with her partner Kassidy Cook, and individually in the three meter springboard. Bacon earlier this week qualified for the finals in both events.

Monday night Bacon and Cook finished in second place in the semifinal round of the 3 meter synchro event 30 points behind the leaders.

The finals will take place Thursday night live on the Olympic Channel at 6PM central. Only the top team will qualify to represent the US in the Olympics. Cook is dealing with a shoulder injury limiting what their team can do, but hopefully the duo can pull off some magic and jump up to the top spot Thursday night.

Bacon will have one more chance in the women’s 3 meter springboard finals on Saturday. She sits in fifth place after the semifinals after struggling on her second dive of the night.

Bacon will need to make up significant ground to jump into the top two and earn a spot to Tokyo. The women’s three meter finals will air live on NBC at 3:50 central.

Jake Butler will take place in the men’s three meter competition. The prelims were underway Wednesday morning as this was being completed. Butler would need to finish in the top 18 to advance to Wednesday night’s semifinals, and then in the top 12 in the semifinals to advance to Sunday’s final.

Good luck to Sarah and Jake as they try and get more Gophers to Toyko!