Background[]
- Diver from Churchill, outside of Pittsburgh who competed at the National Sports Fesival in early 1980s.
- Was PIAA diving champion in high school.
Karen Marie LaFace (born January 29, 1966 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a retired female diver from the United States. She competed for her native country at the 1992 Summer Olympics, finishing in ninth place in the Women's 3m Springboard event. LaFace claimed the gold medal in the same event a year earlier at the 1991 Pan American Games.
- A medical doctor for the past 14 years in Ithaca, New York as of 2010.
- Coaching diving at Ithaca College
Details[]
Sports article by Matt Rice/The Ithacan
Photo caption: COACH KAREN LAFACE, right, speaks with sophomore Jane Mooney Tuesday at the Hill Center pool.
Ex-Olympian gives IC diving a new face
Noria Litaker - Staff Writer, January 23, 2003
As a child, Ithaca diving coach Karen LaFace lived from practice to practice.
Swimming, ballet and acrobatics filled every evening, but the diving boards looming over the pool always intrigued her.
“I used to fool around on the boards all the time. I was fearless,” LaFace said. “I’d go up on the 3 meter and try to do as many flips as I could.”
When she realized that diving practice would conflict with her swimming schedule, a sport she was less than fond of, LaFace jumped at the chance to join a diving squad at the University of Pittsburgh.
A way to get out of swim practice eventually led LaFace to more than 10 years of diving on the U.S. national team and a trip to Barcelona for the Olympic Games in 1992.
Ten years after reaching her sport’s pinnacle, LaFace is sharing her expertise and strong work ethic with the Bomber diving squads two to three nights a week as head diving coach. She remains a family practitioner for the Guthrie Medical Group in Ithaca.
LaFace’s arrival last season was described as a “godsend” by junior diver Mike Furstoss. Paired with coach Willie Miller, LaFace helped junior Kristin Shorette make her first trip to nationals. Furstoss and senior Devin Fay were also close to qualifying for the championship as well.
LaFace’s commitment to excellence and gritty determination for success comes from pursuing a lifelong dream.
At the age of 10, LaFace watched the 1976 Summer Olympics and remembers saying, “I want to go the Olympics.”
Soon she was on her way.
LaFace transformed into a graceful and powerful diver, trading the dare-devilish flips of her youth for advanced dives and earning All-American status each of her four years in high school along the way. It was then at age 16 when she began her 10-year run with the U.S. national team.
After graduating from Ohio State and having been named NCAA diver of the year in her senior season of 1987, LaFace traveled to six of the seven continents with the national team. In 1991, she won a gold medal at the Pan-American games.
Yet the biggest competition still awaited: the Olympic Games.
“The Olympics definitely topped them all,” she said. “The energy was really incredible, and Barcelona was just the best, beautiful. There was a lot of excitement everywhere you looked, any time of day, there was just one big party.”
In Barcelona, LaFace placed ninth in the 3-meter springboard and shortly thereafter retired from competitive diving.
Following her diving career, LaFace attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and completed her residency at Brown University.
During her years in medical training, LaFace missed the sport that had been an integral part of her life since childhood.
So she began coaching.
“What makes me like coaching so much is that I love diving,” she said. “I don’t want to be away from it. I did it for 20 years, and then it was like I was cut off when I went to medical school, so I really want to stay involved.”
Though she had coached teammates and at diving camps in the past, LaFace’s job at Ithaca College is her first official coaching position.
“Truthfully, it was difficult for me at first because I wasn’t always sure what I should be telling the divers, especially because they are at all different levels. There are some more advanced and some that are beginners,” said LaFace. “You can really see all the kids improve dramatically if you just are patient and really try to explain things in a way they can understand.”
Her work has paid off.
“She is one of the most positive people I’ve ever met,” Furstoss said.
While the program has flourished under her instruction, LaFace is not content.
She hopes to send more divers to nationals this year and ensure that the swimming and diving program remains the best in the state.