"I had this year between when I graduated and the Olympics to devote whatever I had to this sport."

It has primarily been coincidence that most of Cassidy Krug's trips to international meets have been to diving-crazy China.

So the Montour High School and Stanford graduate knew what to expect at the Diving World Cup, which started yesterday in Beijing.

Krug has dealt with the vast time change before.

She also knows about the snickering.

"It's such a big sport there. Everybody is super enthusiastic about it, and the stands are all always full," Krug said before leaving for the trip. "If you do a bad dive, they laugh at you. I haven't seen that anywhere else."

Krug, the defending women's 3 meter national champion, is hoping to land one of the United States' two spots in that event already secured for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing -- which will be held in the National Aquatic Center, the same building as this week's World Cup.

The divers for those spots won't be finalized until the Olympic trials in June and a selection camp in July, and Krug has a challenge.

She is one of four women who have won the past four national championships, and a different set of two have represented the United States at the four most recent major meets. Her main competition for an Olympic berth comes from Kelci Bryant, Christina Loukas, Nancilea Foster and Ariel Rittenhouse. Foster (sixth) and Bryant (10th) competed at the 2007 world championships, but neither qualified for the individual 3 meter at the World Cup, which is the biggest meet this year besides the Olympics. Loukas is also at the World Cup.

Foster is Krug's partner in synchronized diving, giving her a second option for an Olympic berth, although the United States has not yet secured a spot in the Beijing Games in that event. Bryant and Rittenhouse are considered the top synchronized team. Krug will stay in China after the World Cup to compete in synchronized diving at the China Open.

"It really is competitive," Krug said. "It's going to be a horse race until Olympic trials."

Krug hopes to qualify for the Olympics in the individual 3 meter as well as in synchronized diving.

Krug, 22, graduated from Stanford last spring as a seven-time All-American. She won the NCAA 1 and 3 meters last year and was named NCAA diver of the year. Since then, she has split her time training with her Stanford coach, Rick Schavone, and with Kenny Armstrong at The Woodlands, Texas, where she works with Foster.

There also are a couple other coaches in Krug's life, her parents.

"I still talk to her from time to time about technique," said Julian Krug, the Pitt diving coach. "I raised her to have an open mind and be open to all different kinds of coaching."

It could take all that coaching to get Krug into the Olympics.

"You can count five or six girls in women's 3 meter, and they are so neck and neck," said Dorothy Krug, who coaches diving at several area high schools and clubs.

"It's the only one of the diving events where the U.S. has so many contenders. Over the past year there has been a time where everyone has been the best. She is most definitely in the top group."

If Cassidy Krug makes another trip to China this summer, it won't be her first time attending an Olympics.

Dorothy Krug has worked as a statistician for NBC at several Olympics, and for the 2004 Games in Athens, she helped get Krug a position as a runner.

"She really got to watch the whole thing, the pressure on everybody, every aspect of it without having to deal with it as an athlete," said Julian, who also went to Athens.

Normally, runners are confined to menial tasks, but Krug, being a diver working in the diving venue, got to do a little more.

"I got the best seat you could possibly have for the diving events, and I learned a lot about the back end of the telecast," she said. "It's so amazing what goes into recording and broadcasting it all.

"I drove a golf cart around. I got people drinks and coffee and helped type up charts. But since I was the only runner working for diving who knew about diving, I was able to do some cool things. I would run around with roving reporters, pointed out people's parents in the stands, and I helped set up interviews."

This summer, Krug would like to return to the Olympics as one of the athletes.

"That was the next big goal" after graduating, she said. "The way I saw it, I had this year between when I graduated and the Olympics to devote whatever I had to this sport."