Editor’s note: In the Colorado Classics series, The Denver Post takes a weekly look at individuals who made their mark on the Colorado sports landscape and what they are doing now.
Olympic diver Micki King’s fondest memories are from the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City – even though a broken arm suffered in competition ruined her chances for a gold medal.
Even though four years later, in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, she won the gold medal in the 3-meter springboard.
“Mexico City was my first Olympics, and I was caught up in all the pageantry and things like that,” King said.
“It was an adventure. But I was 28 years old when I competed in Munich, and it was my last hurrah. It was all business.”
King’s competitive spirit was best exemplified after the heartbreak in Mexico City.
“I was leading with only three dives to go,” King said. “But on my second-to-last dive, I hit the board with my arm. The irony was that I could have done my cleanup dive with a broken leg, but I didn’t know I had to do it with a broken arm. I didn’t think it was going to hurt, and when it did, it shook me up.”
The pain caused King to crumple on her last dive, and she slipped from first to fourth, out of the medal group.
King’s focus turned to the Munich Games, and she trained relentlessly for what became one of the greatest comebacks in Olympic competition.
“I wasn’t about to let that one slip away,” King said.
It was while training for her Olympic competition that King first became associated with the Air Force Academy. The academy’s diving facility was one of the best in the country, and the Olympic team trained there. After retiring from competition, King, who spent 26 years in the Air Force, coached the academy’s diving team from 1973-77 and was the first woman assigned to the athletic department. She returned in 1983 and until 1989 remained on assignment in the athletic department, where she was assistant athletic director.
During King’s first assignment at the academy, the student body was all male. But she did committee work for two years on admitting female cadets to the service academies. She was on an assignment elsewhere when the first class of female cadets graduated in 1980.
Today, Air Force’s graduating class usually consists of about 150 females.
King’s daughter, Michelle Hogue, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2004 and presented a miniature graduation ring to Micki.
“Never once in the two years of committee work did I ever dream that my own daughter would be a beneficiary,” King said. “She said if anybody should have a class ring, I should.”
After leaving the academy after her second tour, King joined the staff at the University of Kentucky, where she became the first woman to command the school’s ROTC detachment. She retired from the Air Force in 1992 as a colonel but remains in Lexington as an assistant athletic director.
“She wants nothing but the best for the sport that treated her so well,” Kentucky diving coach Mike Lyden said. “She’s supportive of whatever she’s involved in.”
King remains involved with Olympic sports in her current assignment, overseeing the administrative work for men’s and women’s swimming, tennis and the rifle team.
And she has maintained a strong tie with the U.S. national team’s diving program. It’s painful for her to note that for the first time, the United States didn’t win a medal in diving at the 2004 Summer Olympic in Athens.
“There was a time when our divers were the best,” King said.
“I think we’re on our way back.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
