Short Platform Upsets Divers

The diving team is dissatisfied with the design of the new Soldier's Field natatorium because it does not include a ten-meter diving platform, Craig Gavin '80, a member of the team, said yesterday.

Although college competitions rarely include ten-meter platform diving, it is a major event in the Olympics.

"Obviously, we all want to go to the Olympics," Gavin said. "Now we have to go somewhere else to practice on a ten-meter platform."

The cost of building the roof of the natatorium high enough to accommodate a ten-meter tower was prohibitive, Joseph G. Bernal, men's swimming coach, said yesterday.

"We had to weigh the number of people who would use the platform against, the cost," Bernal said. "I don't think most people here would dare to go up there."

Gavin said that although there are only nine men and women divers, the lack of a ten-meter platform would decrease Harvard's ability to attract Olympic-caliber divers.