In the lane with Katura Horton-Perinchief
Katura Horton-Perinchief is a talented junior on The University of Texas women's diving squad. After earning All-Big 12 Conference honors last year on the three-meter springboard and the platform, Perinchief represented Bermuda at the World Championships in Barcelona as well as the Pan American Games in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic. A native of Etobicoke, Ontario, Perinchief recently took time to talk with TexasSports.com about how she got into diving, Bermuda and her love for the Cosby Show.
IN THE POOL
How did you get into diving?
"I'm originally from Bermuda, and as most young child growing up on an island will do, I dove off bridges, cliffs, and boats. You would see all the big guys doing it and I was always the only little girl joining them. I started diving when I was six and I was involved in gymnastics as well. Gymnastics was really hard on my body so I quit when I was 12 and diving became my focus."
Were there any personal influences to you becoming a diver?
"I remember watching Greg Louganis dive at the 1988 Olympics and thinking that what he was doing was something I wanted to do."
What do you enjoy most about diving?
"I enjoy the aesthetic beauty of diving. It's beautiful to watch and there is also a risk factor involved."
Did your diving training take place in Bermuda?
"No. I had actually moved Canada by then."
How did you get noticed by Texas?
"I was on the Canadian Junior National Team and I competed in a lot of meets against U.S. teams."
What made you decide to come to Texas?
"One was the weather; I really like that it is warm here. Since I was a little girl, I had always wanted to visit Texas. My recruiting trip was my first visit to the state and being from another country, I didn't really know what to expect. I did realize that there aren't as many cowboys as I thought there would be. I was shocked by what I saw, but I really love it here."
Was it easy adjusting to a new environment such as Texas?
"It was surprisingly easy. The team has been amazing and all the people here are just really nice and helpful."
You are a Canadian citizen yet you represented Bermuda at the World Championships and Pan American Games. How did that work?
"I am a Canadian citizen because my father was a citizen before I was born, but I am also a Bermudian citizen because I was born in Bermuda. As a junior, I represented Canada, but I wanted to represent Bermuda as a senior not only because I am from there, but because they do not have a lot of Olympic representatives. Competing for the Bermudian Olympic team would help me put the island on the map. There's a lot of support there and I thought that it would be really cool to do something like that."
Was it difficult to go from competing on a junior level with Canada to competing on a senior level with Bermuda in terms of eligibility?
"I did have to take a year off from competing internationally before I was able to compete for Bermuda. I had informed Canada from the beginning that I was going to represent Bermuda so we just went through all the guidelines necessary to help me be released from the Canadian team."
Do you remember your first time diving off the platform?
"I was seven the very first time I went off the platform and I just jumped off. Once I had to actually dive off the platform I was up there for about an hour, but once I got the first one out of the way I realized it was a lot of fun. It doesn't look that high when you're standing on the deck, but once you get up there it's an entirely different view."
How has diving at Texas helped you in international competition, and at the same time how has your international experience helped you at Texas?
"Texas has one of the top swimming and diving programs in the country. Not only is Matt Scoggin a U.S. National coach, but he is also an Olympian. He is an amazing coach and he talks to me a lot about what to expect when competing internationally so when I go into those meets I'm not nearly as nervous. Coming back to Texas from international meets I feel like I'm more prepared to compete on the college level because I've competed against all these world-class athletes. At the same time, there is some pressure because people expect you to perform to a certain standard since you have competed internationally."
Talk a little more about Coach Scoggin and his influence on your diving.
"I had a Russian coach for most of my diving career and with him, it was do the dive and fix it if it wasn't right. There was never an emotional element brought into the training. It was more a mentality of you need to be the best and this is how it is. This kind of training really helped build my competitiveness, but at the same time it's nice to have some compassion. It's different with Matt because has been there, he's been a diver, so he knows what it's like and he feels the fear of performing certain dives. He also sees things that you wouldn't normally think to fix, and he offers suggestions on how to fix them. There's a mutual trust between the two of us. I know that he will not put me up to do a dive that I'm not ready for. He's just really supportive regardless of whether you dive well or dive poorly. Being an ex-diver, he knows that you can't be on all the time."
How is your relationship with the swimmers even though you spend a lot of time apart?
"We do train in different pools so we don't spend that much time together; however, during meets is when we really come together. The swimmers always come and watch us and we watch them. They realize that divers are really important to the meet because we count toward the final score -- we could win or lose the meet for them. We are all really supportive of each other."
What advice would you give to an aspiring diver?
"Just do it. Diving has to be something you love. You have to give it your all and know that one day you could be an Olympic champion if you work hard for it. It's about heart and nerve. "
OUT OF THE POOL
Do you speak any other languages?
"I speak Spanish and French. I started speaking French at age two and am now fluent in it. I speak French as well as I speak English. I didn't start learning Spanish until high school, but when I was sixteen I went on a student exchange to Madrid, Spain, and that's where I really learned to speak the language."
How long did you live in Bermuda?
"I lived there until I was two, but I was back and forth until I was eight. My whole family is in Bermuda and the reason I was in Canada was because my parents were going to school - my dad was in law school and my mom was working on her degree in electrical engineering. It was there that my parents put me in gymnastics and diving. I would spend the school year in Canada and the summers in Bermuda. I now return to Bermuda twice a year"
Is it true you never miss an episode of The Cosby Show?
"Never. Ever since I was little I have watched The Cosby Show. I love the show because the family is dysfunctional in a way, but they are so full of love and very supportive of each other."
How did you become interested in writing poetry, and what do you write about?
"I learned to read at an early age and was always encouraged to write in journals. When I was younger, I loved reading works by Shel Silverstein and as I got older I started reading Maya Angelou. I can pretty much write about anything. I once wrote a poem about pressure while at the Commonwealth Games, and I thought it was pretty good. I write about anything I know."
What kind of music do you listen to?
"Coming from an island, I grew up on reggae, calypso, and other island music so that was kind of weird when I came here was introduced to other types of music like rock, country, and rap."
Is Bob Marley influential in your writing?
"Not really. What I have noticed is that he writes about his experiences and his life, and the best poetry comes from what you know about. I love Bob Marley and love what he says, but my experiences could never be his experiences."
What music do you listen to now that you have been in the States for a few years?
"I really like R&B and some rap, but I can't stand country. I don't mind Shania Twain country, but the "boots and spurs" country music I don't like. Matt plays country music at practice, and I always wonder what kind of influence I have as captain to be able to change it."
What do you like most about Austin?
"Austin has a lot of natural beauty, like Mount Bonnell, and the people are very polite and welcoming. Austin also has a lot of character. It's a college town, but there are a lot of other people in the community as well. I like how the city supports UT to the magnitude that it does. I love it here."
How do you spend your time away from the pool?
"I sometimes go shopping -- I love the mall. We don't have malls in Bermuda. I also like to stay home and read."
What are your career aspirations?
"I want to be a doctor. What I really want to do is work with Doctors without Borders, which is an organization that goes to third world countries and provide its people with medical support. It takes a certain type of person to do something like this."
What from Bermuda would you bring back to Austin?
"I would bring palm trees and pink sand beaches."
