Indiana University Athletics
DiPrimio: Capobianco, Parratto “Feed the Flame,” Build on Olympic Legacies
7/16/2024 2:26:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving, Olympics
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Sometimes, mother knows best, father needs to stay out of the way and son soars to the top of his sport.
Andrew Capobianco is proof of that.
The former Indiana University national diving champion is seeking a second Olympic medal, this time in the 3-meter springboard, in the upcoming Paris Olympics to go along with the silver he won in the 2020 Tokyo Games 3-meter synchronized competition.
Capobianco is one of three current or former IU divers heading to Paris. The others are Jessica Parratto in women's synchronized 10-meter and Carson Tyler in 3-meter springboard and 10-meter platform.
Capobianco, 24, is a diver because youthful attempts at baseball, basketball and football didn't work for him.
"I always found myself doing cartwheels (in uniform) on a football field," he says with a smile. "Then, I'd get yelled at."
Capobianco switched to gymnastics, which was fine, until a field trip to a state of New York community pool resulted in a series of flips off the diving board that caught the attention of a local diving coach.
"I didn't know diving was a sport. I thought I was just doing gymnastics into the water. The diving coach asked me if I was a diver. I said no. She asked me to try it. I did and loved it."
He took that love home and told his father, Michael, who said no, he was a gymnast. Employing a strategy that has worked since the dawn of time, Capobianco turned to his mother, Darlene, who said yes.
"I started diving and never really stopped."
Starting in 2011, Capobianco did both sports for three years, even winning a 2013 national title in gymnastics floor exercises, before concentrating on diving. He made the 2015 Junior Pan Am Championships, was a member of Team USA's 2014 and 2016 FINA World Championships, as well as the 2017 FINA World Championships in mixed synchronized platform diving.
It earned him a scholarship to IU, where he won three NCAA 3-meter diving titles and was a 12-time All-American from 2018-23. He also was a four-time Big Ten Diver of the Year.
Capobianco won last month's U.S. trials 3-meter springboard with a score of 971.80, just ahead of IU divers Carsen Tyler (945.75) and Quinn Henninger (870.50). Tyler also qualified in the 3-meter, as well as the 10-meter platform, a grueling double last attempted in the Olympics by a U.S. male diver in 2000, when Mark Ruiz did it.
Capobianco just missed qualifying in synchronized springboard – the event he earned a silver medal in at Tokyo 2020 with former Hoosier teammate Michael Hixon. He and Henninger finished less than three points behind the winning team of Greg Duncan and Tyler Downs.
The Paris Games goal is clear – gold medal.
"I go into it with a similar mindset and confidence," he says. "This time I only have one event to show my stuff. I feel really confident in where I'm at. I'm excited to focus on just one event. Do what I can do."
It helps to have IU head diving coach Drew Johansen as Team USA head diving coach, a role he's had for four consecutive Olympics.
"It was great to have him in Tokyo with me and it will be even better now," Capobianco says. "We have such a great relationship. He has so much experience on that stage. With three Olympics in a row [coming into Paris], it's amazing to have that type of leadership for us."
Capobianco, who hopes to become a coach when his competitive days are over, says competing in a second Olympics is a thrill. He aims to embrace the entire experience, including the nerves, pressure and drama certain to come. China looms as the favorite after dominating the world championships.
"The whole world is excited for these Olympics because the last one was so different (due to the pandemic). I don't want to block stuff out. I want to feel all of it, experience all of it and lock in on competition day."
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Saying Jessica Parratto was born for diving success doesn't stretch the truth. Her mother, Amy, was a five-time All-American at Wellesley College. Her father, Mike, coached superstar swimmer Jenny Thompson, who won 12 Olympic medals, including eight gold.
The 2015 NCAA champ in 10-meter diving for IU, Parratto won silver medal in women's synchronized platform with Delaney Schnell in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. It was the first time a U.S. team had medaled in the event.
Parratto made the Olympic team, but didn't win a medal, at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. She is an eight-time USA Diving national champion in women's platform and platform synchro. She has competed at five world championships since 2011.
Parratto retired after the Tokyo Games, but Schnell talked her into a comeback. She returned to IU to train under Jenny Johansen, the wife of Drew Johansen.
A bronze medal at the 2023 World Diving Championships for Parratto and Schell was followed by a dominating U.S. Team Trials victory. Their score of 607.14 was more than 113 points better than the runner-up team.
"Jessica is in an amazing spot to have a great Olympics," Jenny Johansen says. "Physically, she's ready to go and challenge the world. Mentally and emotionally, this is her third Olympics to draw on. She has it all. She's putting it together at the right time. She and Delaney are such a great pair."
As far as training at IU, Johansen says, "Jessica wanted to be back with us, back with the support system of the entire IU culture. Once we had that all in place, we were ready to go."
That's true for all the Hoosier divers past and present, Drew Johansen adds.
"The IU aspect is what carries us through it, even in disappointment as well as joy and success."
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The Hoosiers have had at least one diver in every Olympics since 1964.
It's not by accident or good luck. It comes, Drew Johansen says, from a culture that is decades in the making. He credits Capobianco for the "feed the flame" mantra that has sparked the Hoosier swimming and diving program in recent years.
"He created it four or five years ago," Johansen says. "The team has taken that mantra on, swimming and diving. The kids consider themselves the kindling of that flame. The wood that's burning the flame. Their effort every day keeps that flame burning."
In case they forget, huge photographs of IU swimming and diving greats such as Lesley Bush (the 1964 Olympic gold medalist in platform diving), Cynthia Potter (three-time Olympian and the 1976 bronze medalist in 3-meter springboard) and multiple-gold medal-winning swimmers Gary Hall and Mark Spitz adorn Councilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center.
"When you walk into our facility and see the pictures on the wall that go all the way back to the 1960s," Johansen says, "and the history that's with it, that's pretty powerful, especially when you're having a rough workout. That's the flame that they've taken on. They're pretty serious about it. That helps us."
Help also comes from swimming gold medal winners and former Hoosiers Lilly King and Blake Pieroni, who are preparing for their third straight Olympics.
"We use our teammates as examples," Tyler says. "It motivates you in practice. With people like Lilly and Blake and Andrew, you learn a lot. That continued success has helped every athlete that has come after them. We build off the people who came before us."
#NeverDaunted
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