Jan. 20, 2000

LARAMIE, Wyo. -

Wyoming sophomore diver Oscar Delgado (Covina, Calif.) will compete at the World Diving Championships Jan. 22-29, in Sydney, Australia. Delgado will represent Ecuador at the championships. Although Delgado was born in the United States, he has dual citizenship with Ecuador because his father was born there. Delgado will be competing in the three-meter springboard event.

The World Championships serve as a pre-Olympic meet, as most everyone competing at will also be competing at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, also held in Sydney.

"I'm really excited about the opportunity to compete at the World Championships," Delgado said. "Diving isn't really a big thing in Ecuador, but I kind of made it a goal of mine to compete at this meet so I sent letters to the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee. Ecuador has mentioned to me that they might send me to some South American meets before the Olympics, like the Pan-Am Games and the South American Championships and maybe eventually to the 2000 Olympics."

This competition will be the second international meet for Delgado, who also competed at the CanaMex Games in 1992. Teams from Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, United States and Venezuela competed at those games.

"The Olympics are a realistic goal because there aren't really any other divers in Ecuador, there are swimmers, but no divers," Delgado said. "I had the opportunity to go to the 1996 Olympics, they (Ecuador) came to me, but I decided that I wasn't mentally ready yet.

"It's going to be the biggest meet of my life. The last year it seems like every few months I'm going to a bigger meet. Last year I made it to the NCAA Championships and then Senior Nationals, which is the meet the US National Team comes out of."

The top 12 finishers at the World Championships automatically qualify for the 2000 Olympics.

"I'm really excited for Oscar to get this opportunity," said Wyoming diving coach Jason Baumann. "I don't think there is anyone who deserves this more, he has really worked hard for this and I'm glad he's getting the chance to compete at a meet of this magnitude."