This summer she’ll compete in Athens in both springboard and platform diving, looking once again for an Olympic medal. Kimiko says she found the strength and desire to continue in the sport in spite of her struggles when she made a commitment to Jesus Christ only a few years ago — something she realizes is far more important than Olympic gold.

Beginning Dreams
When Kimiko originally dreamed of being in the Olympics, she thought it would be as a gymnast, not a diver. But a severe injury to one of her knees at the age of 15 put a sudden end to her gymnastic career. After Kimiko endured a year of painful rehabilitation to her kneecap, her dad suggested she try another sport that involved twisting and tumbling — diving.

But while Kimiko was trying out for the diving team in high school, she was facing a different challenge at home. Her mother had been fighting a battle with breast cancer for several years; just before Kimiko’s senior year her mother finally lost that battle and died.

Watching her mother’s struggle taught Kimiko some valuable lessons about perseverance. “She kept life as normal as possible for us. She was so strong,” Kimiko says. “Looking back, I realize that she taught me to be determined and appreciate life and to live every day to its fullest.”

Continued Dreams
With the support and encouragement of her brother and father, Kimiko competed for the University of Indiana as a diver where she also met her husband, Andy Soldati. As Kimiko started winning national competitions, more injuries stopped her career progress. One injury was a tear in her shoulder requiring two surgeries and long periods of rehabilitation that left her unable to compete for seasons at a time.

Frustrated that she was unable to reach her quest to compete in the 2000 Olympics, Kimiko and her husband decided to start over at the Woodlands Diving Club in Texas. What they didn’t know was that the move would not only help Kimiko’s career, but it would also change their lives forever.

“I wasn’t raised in a Christian home and had never had any interest in anything to do with God,” she says. “But in 2001, after my husband and I moved to Texas, we were invited to church by friends. I didn’t want to go. I thought faith was for weak people who needed a crutch. But this church was much different than I expected.”

Kimiko laughs. “I met the pastor and his wife, and they seemed really normal!” Still, Kimiko’s decision to follow Christ didn’t happen overnight. “My husband believed the truth a little faster than I did,” she says. “I was such a control freak. It took a while before I could let go and believe.”

Kimiko and her husband became good friends with the pastor and his wife. “I noticed that my husband — with his new faith — had a peace I didn’t have. I’d been rushing around and striving my whole life, but I didn’t have peace. That’s what I wanted, and that’s what finally convinced me that the Bible must be true.

“Developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ has changed everything in my life! My self-worth is no longer wrapped up in diving. I look back at how I handled the first two shoulder surgeries I had before I was a Christian. I was so stressed and freaked out. But the two surgeries I had a couple of years ago (after another shoulder injury) were different in the sense that I simply trusted God. I knew He would work everything according to His will. Now I feel great, and I’m competing well again.”

In fact, Kimiko’s competing so well that some speculate she’ll win at least one medal in Athens.

Olympic Fellowship
An added blessing for Kimiko after she moved to Texas was becoming friends with fellow diver, Christian and training partner, Olympic gold medalist Laura Wilkinson. (Brio readers may remember her cover story in the June 2002 issue.) They now compete together in the 10-meter synchronized diving event (where two divers stand on separate platforms and dive the same dive in perfect unison) as well as against each other in the 10-meter individual platform event.

“Laura is a constant encouragement to me. It’s great when we’re on the towers diving together, because we’re both up there for the same reason — to give glory to God. We both believe we dive for an audience of one.”

Through all the ups and downs she’s faced in life, Kimiko sums up her newfound strength in Christ using this favorite quote (although she doesn’t know where she first heard it): “When storms of life rage and the ground beneath your feet dissolves, there are lessons to be learned by paddling harder and believing you can make it and not letting deep waters keep you from diving into life.”

Fun Faves
Though training doesn’t allow Kimiko much free time, when she is away from the pool, here are a few of her favorite things.

Music: Casting Crowns, FFH, Third Day
Books: Anything by Joyce Meyer, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren and mystery novels
Food: “I love to cook. I love to eat.”
Hobby: Golf

The Short List
Here’s are a few of Kimiko’s diving accomplishments.

• 2002 U.S. Diver of the Year
• 2002 U.S. National Champion — 3-Meter Springboard
• 2002 World Cup Silver Medalist — 10-Meter Platform
• 2002 FINA/USA Grand Prix Silver Medalist — 3-Meter Synchronized Diving, Bronze Medalist — 10-Meter Synchronized Diving, Bronze Medalist — Team Event
• 2001 Goodwill Games Bronze Medalist — 3-Meter, first medal for the USA on springboard in international competition since 1984
• 2001 National Champion — 1-Meter, Silver Medalist — 3-Meter and 10-Meter
• 2001 World Championship Team member and Team Captain, 6th — 10-Meter synchronized diving, 7th — 3-Meter synchronized diving