I would like to thank the Harvard Varsity Club and the Selection Committee for inviting me to become a member of this impressive group of Harvard athletes. Congratulations to the other inductees tonight – it is a privilege and honor to be in your company. I am proud to be the 5th diver to be inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame! Thank you to the Hall of Fame divers who came before me, created such a great diving tradition and paved the way for me: Frank Gorman ’59, Nancy Sato ’75, Pam Stone Ryan ’82, and Dan Watson ’85. Diving is such a wonderful sport – a combination of grace and power, artistry and athleticism. I was hooked the first time I jumped off of a diving board at age 6. Diving quickly became a great love of my life; I am so lucky that I found it. From a very young age, I dreamed of making an Olympic team, but I never did. Over the years, that dream has faded into the background, as I have come to cherish the richness of the journey I was so fortunate to take. I was 14 years old when I attended a summer diving camp at Harvard and met John Walker. Keith Miller, Harvard’s current diving coach, was our coach and counselor. Keith drove us to practice, through Harvard Square, piled into the back of his pick up truck. There was no better combination for me than a risk-taking thrill-ride to a diving practice. John Walker was instantly a great match for me - attentive, committed, even-keeled and up beat! I trained with John’s age group team, JW Divers, while a high school student at Philips Academy Andover, and he ultimately recruited me to come to Harvard. John’s dedication to the Harvard Diving Team was tremendous. I remember a training trip to Puerto Rico when John got up early every morning to run and condition with me before our first practice of the day. John spent countless hours with me, helping to perfect my dives and maintain a balanced perspective on academic and athletic life at Harvard. He was far more than a coach – he was a great friend and confidant. I would never have accomplished what I did at Harvard without John Walker’s coaching on and off the pool deck. It is wonderful now, all these years later, to reflect back on my years at Harvard as a student-athlete. In my case, the balance was more athlete-student. There was so much training, competing, travelling, and so many missed classes. There were many early mornings trudging through the snow, across the bridge in the dark, to practice, and late dinners after evening practice. My years at Harvard taught me how to balance competing priorities, how to persevere, how to maintain perspective, and how to strive for excellence in spite of constraints. I apply these life skills that I learned at Harvard on a daily basis. I have so many fond memories of mornings, afternoons, evenings, weekends, and school breaks spent with the fabulously talented, committed and spirited Harvard Women’s Swimming and Diving Team. Thank you for all of the fun, laughter and camaraderie along the way. This group of women shaped my experience at Harvard. There was much celebration, as together we won the Ivy League Championship in 1986 and the Ivy League and Eastern Championships in 1988! I owe a debt of gratitude to the numerous people on my team: my family; coaches; teammates and friends, who helped to make this possible!!! First and foremost, thank you to my family – to my parents and sisters, Cindy, Kristin and Megan - for shuttling me to practice mornings, nights and weekends; for enduring endless diving competitions over the years; for spending so many family vacations at my diving competitions. Thank you to my cousins David and Henry and my Uncle John for cheering me on throughout my diving career. I had the great fortune to be coached by so many illustrious coaches over the years – Jon Hahnfeldt and Clark Falkenstein in CT, Hobie Billingsley at Indiana University, Jim Stilllson and Gordon Spencer at Columbia University, Mike Brown at University of Texas, and John Walker, Jeff Mule, and Keith Miller at Harvard. Thank you all for your coaching, guidance and support both in and out of the pool. Thank you to my teammates and friends – especially, Patrick, Dan, Amy, Megan, Liz, Carolyn, Patty, Vadim, and Fred – for cheering me on, keeping me afloat academically, helping me to maintain perspective and providing infinite moral support. Finally, thank you to my husband Chris for being the love of my life and my biggest fan, and to my two boys, Nick and Ryan, who bring me infinite joy, and just might be Hall of Fame inductees themselves one day. Although you never had the chance to see me dive, my years at Harvard shaped the person that I am today. This is the thrill of a lifetime, and a moment I will never forget. Thank you!!!