14-Year-Old Diver Aiming for 2020 Olympics

Abigail Shewack, 14, of South Whitehall, has earned a spot to compete at the prestigious AAU Diving National Championships this Saturday in San Antonio. The competition will be televised nationally.

Abbi, as she is better known, will be entering eighth grade at Springhouse Middle School, and dives for Lafayette College's youth team, the Board Benders. She has been diving for only two years, but already has been racking up medals and getting the attention of the diving world.

Even more remarkable, unlike most other divers, Abbi has no gymnastics background. 

The daughter of Martina and Carl, Abbi lives at home with her siblings, Rachael, Samantha and Benjamin.

"She eats, sleeps and breathes diving," her mother said. "Half the time we see more of her feet in the air than on the ground." 

Abbi's two specialties are the inward one and a half tuck position dive and the front double somersault pike.

Abbi, whose idols are Olympic gold medalists Greg Louganis and David Boudia, dreams of competing in the 2020 Olympics. 

Last year, Abbi had the good fortune to meet Boudia. Mother and daughter flew out to Seattle just to watch one night of the Olympic diving trials. They ran into Boudia's mother, who arranged for Abbi to meet her son after she learned of her aspirations and that she had flown across the country just to watch her son dive for one night.

"She got on the phone, talked to her son David and things happened," Martina said.

Boudia earned a spot in the Olympics that night. 

He also earned a way into the Shewacks' hearts.

"He called up to Abigail in the stands and for her birthday, gave her one of his special Li Ning Olympic Journey shirts," Martina said. "You cannot buy these shirts, they are given to Olympic divers from the Olympic sponsor company."

NBC also got wind of Abbi's Olympics dream and of flying out to see Boudia. "They wanted to put her story in during an Olympic spot," Martina said.

Abbi has her sights focused so intensely on her dream that she painted a picture of the multi-colored Olympic rings and tacked it on her bedroom ceiling.

It's the last thing she sees before she falls asleep.