INDIANAPOLIS — The realization of what he has accomplished hasn’t fully registered yet.
But the walls of the IUPUI Natatorium will always provide a reminder: Amherst native Michael Hixon is a 2016 U.S. Olympian.
The facility in downtown Indianapolis has hosted numerous U.S. Olympic diving and swimming trials through the years. Each year, the names of the athletes who qualify for the Olympics are painted on the wall.
Some of the most recognizable names in the sport are listed there. Olympic gold medalist divers Greg Louganis and David Boudia. Record-breaking swimmer Michael Phelps. Now, Hixon’s name is on that wall for people to see years from now.
Hixon qualified for the Rio Olympics in two events, winning the 3-meter synchronized springboard with Sam Dorman earlier in the week, and finishing second in the individual 3-meter on Saturday.
“To see my name on that wall is pretty special,” said Hixon, a diver at Indiana University.
But his performance in the individual 3-meter wasn’t his best. Kristian Ipsen won the event with a cumulative score of 1452.75, while Hixon was second, 57.3 points behind.
“I wasn’t very pleased with my performance,” Hixon said “It was six dives and I missed one pretty badly. But I thought the way I came back was very important for how we’re going to move into Rio.”
Hixon admitted that returning from the emotional high of qualifying for the Olympics a few days ago in the synchronized event may have affected his performance in the individual finals.
“I tried to not let it, but I think that whole emotional thing that went down on Wednesday definitely takes it out of you,” Hixon said. “I tried to put it out of my mind.”
Ipsen held a slim seven-point lead entering the finals, but increased the margin by nearly 27 points over the first three rounds. The fourth round of the finals provided the most adversity. Hixon scored just a 17.5 on his reverse 3.5 somersault tuck. That essentially ended any chances Hixon had of winning the event.
“I felt like I was a little back from the end, and my legs didn’t get all the way through the board and kind of buckled a little bit,” Hixon said.
Mandy Hixon, who coached her son until he was 18, was sitting in the stands and that dive made her sick to her stomach.
“I was about ready to throw up,” said the UMass diving coach. “I was just worried for him. My whole thing is I just want him safe and it’s hard when you have a bad dive to come back from that.”
But that’s just what Hixon did. He scored a 91.20 on a forward 4.5 somersault tuck in the fifth round, following that up with a 95.20 on an inward 3.5 somersault tuck on his final dive.
“That was amazing, his last two dives,” Mandy Hixon said. “That’s what he is looking for, to come back like that. You never give up and he’s a fighter all the way through.”
Any chance of slipping out of second place — the final spot that qualifies for the Olympics team — quickly vanished. Hixon finished on the strong note he needed, making the bad dive feel more like a fluke instead of a concern going forward into Rio.
“That was definitely what I wanted in a comeback,” he said.
Hixon had everything he wanted in a celebration, too — his mother. The practice hours. The travel to events across the world. Daily phone calls. All of those memories came to the forefront for Hixon.
“We put so much into this sport together and she knows that,” Hixon said. “I can’t thank her enough for everything she has done for me. I certainly wouldn’t be where I am right now, sitting in this chair, talking about being in the Olympics, if she hadn’t sacrificed so much.”
After winning the synchronized event on Wednesday, Hixon was able to get a deck pass for his mother so they could celebrate the moment together.
“We’ve done so much together,” Mandy Hixon said. “We talk on the phone every day. Just to see him thrive in college has just been awesome. He’s just a great kid and I love him so much. He’s worked so hard to get to this point and now I feel like he feels like it’s paying off.”
After his last dive of the finals, Hixon hugged Troy Dumais, who is retiring from the sport this year. And that moment came sooner than he wanted, after not qualifying for the Rio Olympics. Hixon and Dumais were synchronized diving partners for several years.
“I just told him I loved him and said thank you,” Hixon said. “The first time I was ever on a senior national team it was because of him. The first time I went to the world series, he was my partner. What he has done for USA diving has been unbelievable. He’s a great ambassador to so many kids coming up. Thank you doesn’t quite cut it when you’re talking to him.”
Dorman and Hixon struggled to find words to describe the biggest accomplishment of their lives last week. So the two divers hugged, shook hands, pointed to the crowd and waved a flag bearing the letters U-S-A with the five Olympic rings.
Dorman and Hixon never gave an opening to Dumais and Ipsen in the men’s synchro 3-meter final and claimed the first spots on the diving team bound for Rio by easily beating the defending bronze medalists in the event.
“Amazing, great, the best. Words can’t describe it, really,” Dorman said with that wide grin. “It was definitely a nerve-wracking experience waiting for Kristian and Troy to go, knowing they hit all their dives.”
They sure didn’t look anxious.
The 24-year-old Dorman, a Miami resident, and the 21-year-old Hixon, a junior at Indiana University, came into the night with a 56-point lead and maintained by matching the scores of Dumais and Ipsen on three of their six dives. Dorman and Hixon had a cumulative score of 1,308.36 points, well ahead of the second-place finishers at 1,260.39.
While the Olympic veterans performed better Wednesday than they had in the prelims and semifinals, they still weren’t good enough.
The difference was that Dorman and Hixon took advantage of a more difficult set of dives. They’re scoring advantage was so great that Hixon’s big mistake on the last barely altered the victory margin.
“I started celebrating a little early, I guess,” Hixon said, drawing laughs.
But Dumais acknowledged they were the better team all week.
“They did the dives,” he said. “All I can do is congratulate them.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
