Thank you, Kathy Seaman
On behalf of the National Officials Roster and National Apprentice Roster
We recently received the announcement that Kathy Seaman will not be returning to the FINA Technical Diving Committee (“TDC”) on which she has served for the last 25 years. In that announcement, she gave thanks to many people who had assisted her during her tenure on the TDC.
Although we are sure there will be other recognitions of the expertise and skill that Kathy brought to her role, we, as diving officials in Canada, would like to acknowledge and thank Kathy for all that she has done for diving and for improving diving officials, both in Canada and around the world. We recognize that Kathy will always remain a member of the Canadian diving family, but we thought it appropriate to express our thanks to her for all that she has done while a member of the TDC.
Kathy has been a stellar contributor to diving around the world and particularly in Canada. She has judged and refereed at every type of major diving competition, including Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups, Pan American Games, Commonwealth Games and FISU Games.
In Canada, prior to joining the TDC, she was a founding member of Canadian diving officials and twice served as a Chair of the Officials’ Committee. During her almost 26 years on the TDC, she has served in a TDC leadership role for 18 years – having served as Honorary Secretary for nine years and as Chair for nine years – in addition to serving as a member for eight years.
Her tenure on the TDC will come to an end almost 26 years after her first appointment at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA. We all owe her a huge debt of gratitude, not only for the many changes that she ushered in as a member of the TDC (including introduction of (i) new and difficult dives, (ii) synchro events – held for the first time in 1998 at the World Championships in Perth, Australia – (iii) mixed synchro and mixed team events – each held for the first time at the World Championships in 2015 in Kazan, Russia – and (v) an expanded diving program at junior world championships, as well as the thoughtful changes that she oversaw in the rules of diving during this period and the expansion of events, including the Diving World Series.
After a number of years of significant change in the diving rules, her tenure brought consistency of approach, with tweaking and minor changes to most rules, but with significant increases to the diving program.
For anyone who has been at a competition at which Kathy is in charge, there is also consistency of approach to the way the competition is conducted, with a largely clean deck, inevitable issues dealt with smoothly and unobtrusively, and learnings taken from any unanticipated incidents. She has been a leader in ensuring fair judging at FINA events and has been quick to speak out when someone does not evaluate divers fairly.
Her job was never an easy one but she was willing to seek input from those with more knowledge in difficult areas and has made decisions judiciously, with appropriate care and consideration. We will all miss her insight and oversight on the diving panels at major events. She was diligent in reviewing panels to avoid any appearance of bias or unfairness, balancing the need for continental parity with the need for maximum competency.
Thank you, Kathy – you will be missed. We only hope that others can emulate your work ethic and diligence in keeping things fair and under control. We wish you all the best in your retirement!