The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, March 27, 2014 - 7A
r Faerber factor: Michigan's new weapon
Rescued from
death as an infant,
sophomore making
a splash for the
Wolverines
ByMAX BULTMAN
Daily Sports Writer
Timothy Faerber is flying
through the air.
While the rest of the Michigan
men's swimming team goes
to the locker room and ices its
muscles, Faerber is still flying.
One rotation, a tuck, an
extension, and then Faerber
enters the water.
"Over! You're over!" shouts
diving coach KZ Li from the
deck, letting the sophomore
know he rotated a few degrees
too many. Faerber bobs back up
above the water, paddling to the
wall and propping himself onto
the deck. He nods his head at
Li, and then turns to a reporter,
sitting two chairs down.
"Is it OK if I do one more?"
he asks, as if he's bound by the
reporter's schedule and not the
other way around.
Faerber gets back up on the
board and does another. He over-
rotates again.
"One more. I'm really sorry."
This time, he hits it clean. His
rotation is fluid and his splash is
minimal.
Michigan
coach Mike
Bottom isn't
seeing any "Last ye
of this. He's
wrapped up focused
in adjusting
the strokes of trying tc
the women fr
swimming laps for m
in the middle
segment of the -
pool.
And that's not all that
surprising. Old habits die hard,
and diving hasn't been an
integral part of the season for
the second-ranked Wolverines.
While their swimmers grace the
covers of Swim World Magazine
and dominate the conversation
on online swimming forums,
Faerber and the dive team fly
under the radar.
But that won't always be the
case. Faerber's making sure of
that.
Ten days earlier, Faerber
stood 10 meters above the water,
at the same pool, preparing
for his final dive at the Big Ten
Championships.
For once, his whole team was
watching.
With 32 feet of free fall
between his feet and the water,
the sophomore took a deep
breath before jumping.
"I'm still scared," Farter
said later, laughing at himself. "I
guess I'd be less scared if I had
never messed up. But IShave."
But he knows there's only one
way down, and that's to jump.
Understanding the natural
dangers of a 32-foot fall,
Faerber clears his head and
takes the plunge.
On this dive, he didn't mess up.
When Faerber hit the water, the
home crowd erupted instantly.
That morning, Faerber had
become the first Michigan diver
in 11 years to make the finals in
all three diving disciplines. And
with that dive, he had just placed
fourth in his second consecutive
event, despite qualifying eighth
at each height.
That was a feat Bottom
couldn't possibly miss. In his
five-year tenure - which has
included four Big Ten titles
and a national championship -
Bottom had never had a diver
perform as well as Faerber.
A year earlier, no one could
have seen this coming.
For Faerber, the journey to
that moment on the 10-meter
platform couldn't have had many
more obstacles.
On Oct. 25, 1994, Tim Faerber
was dead.
At birth, he inhaled bodily
acid, which was dissolving
his lungs as his umbilical cord
strangled him.
"Basically, I was born with
buds for lungs," Faerber said, as
if he had said it a hundred times
before.
Though he was clinically dead,
doctors tied off his carotid artery
and hooked
- him up to an
experimental
ar, I was new machine
in an attempt
on just to circulate his
do well blood. No one
before him had
self,, ever survived
y} . the procedure
without
- complications.
People
had made it, but not without
limitations.
It was a miracle that he
lived at all, let alone that, seven
years later, he began diving
competitively.
It's clear in the way Faerber
speaks about his unusual birth
that it hasn't played a serious
role in his identity. He's thought
about it, sure, just like he thinks
about what could or could not
happen every time he stands
atop the 10-meter platform. But
in no way does it define him.
Still, that didn't stop him from
tryingto reconnect with the man
who saved his life. The doctor
who invented the experimental
procedure - whose name
Faerber doesn't even remember
- now works at the University of
Michigan Hospital.
"When I came here for a
recruiting trip, I actually sent
him an e-mail," Faerber said. "I
thought he would be interested
in talking to me, but he never
responded. I still would love to
talk with him."
When Faerber arrived at
Michigan in the fall of 2012, Li
saw a completely different man
than the one who wowed the
entire pool deck at the Big Ten
Championships.
"A lot of guys, when they get
to university, theythink it will be
easy. They don't want to work,"
Li said. "They want to have fun."
That attitude, Li thinks,
worked its way into Faerber's
mind during his freshman year.
Coming in, he had just
qualified for the Olympic Trials
straight out of the junior national
diving circuit.
At the time, though, he didn't
have enough confidence in two
of his nine dives off the 10-meter
platform, leading him to skip the
trials.
He chose to miss the chance to
compete against the nation's top
talent.
"Itwasthe fearthing," Faerber
said. "I'll regret (not going) for
the rest of my life."
Once he got to Ann Arbor,
he learned, the hard way, the
importance of correcting his
attitude - including the type of
mindset that led him to skip the
trials.
He struggled to keep pace
with tough engineering classes
and missed a few early-morning
practices. He didn't immediately
find his place on the team.
He misjudged the level of
competition he was up against in
the pool and out of it.
"I forgot about the school
part," Faerber said. "It was not a
good year for me in a lot of ways.
I came in thinking (diving) was
going to be easy like it was in
juniors. And it wasn't. There are
people in college you've never
heard of. I thought, having gone
to all the national meets, I would
have already heard of everyone."
The Big Ten's loaded field of
divers overwhelmed the still-
maturing Faerber, who finished
24th, 18th and 10th in the
1-meter, 3-meter and 10-meter,
respectively, at the conference
meet his freshman year.
Beyond that, physical
exhaustion, coupled with atough
transition period in the College
of Engineering, made Faerber's
first year at Michigan arduous.
"We offered him, a few times,
the chance to stop," Li s
told him 'Hey, you've go
life choice.' And every t
said 'No.I wantto keep d.
And even thoug
persevered, the results
show up right away.
Despite an it
performance from thel
Championships, Faerbe
to qualify for nationals.
His team won the
Championship last seaso
he sat at home watching.
Like the other challer
sophomore has faced, a
in attitude helped overc
struggles and put himc
right track.
"Last year, I was just
on trying to do well for
Faerber said. "I think t
a big part of why I didn
well. This year, I've beco
closer with the rest of th,
The scene he faced at I
was the embodiment
Not a single Michigan s
was looking away fro
teammate on the platfort
"It was awesome,"
said. "I've never expi
anything like that."
The fact that he n
missed qualifying for
Championships out
nation's toughest zone
change that he's the be
the Wolverines have ho
years.
He broke
personal bests
in the 1-meter
and the "It
3-meter events.
He broke the I l
drought of
diving success re:
at Michigan.
He grew up.
Halfway
through his
collegiate
career, Faerber is in
position.
Next year, Faerber wi]
of three returning Big Te
to have qualified for f
all three events. He pro
finish top five in each di
and could push the top tl
aid. "We
It a real
ime, he
oing it."'
h he
didn't
nproved
Big Ten
r failed
NCAA
n, while
nges the
change
ome his
onto the
focused
myself,"
hat was
't do so
)me a lot
e team."
ALISON FARRAND/Da y
when diving wasn't a part of his life.
Timothy Faerber said he can't remembei
Big Tens At the rate he's progressing, to study movement science,
of that. divingwillno longerbeso readily Faerber has worked through
wimmer discarded from the highlights his kinks transitioning to the
m their of Michigan swim meets. In a rigorous academic life.
M. conference with powerhouses Through his engineering
Faerber like Purdue and Indiana, Faerber classes, Faerber has learned a
erienced has the Wolverines on their way thing or two about exponential
to notoriety in the diving well. growth - enough to see it taking
arrowly But he doesn't do it because place within himself, at least.
NCAA he needs to win the Big Ten or "My studying's better, my
of the dive at Olympic trials - though time management's better, I
doesn't he very well could do both. First wake up better. Everything is
st diver and foremost, he loves diving better," he said.
ad in 11 and loves doing it well. With a better routine and
"It's kind of all I know," better focus, Faerber has found
Faerber even more time to devote to
said. "I don't bettering himself as a diver.
remember not "The other day, I was at the
's kind of all diving." library, and I ended up watching
the European prelims for, like,
Lnow. I don't *** an hour and a half," Faerber said.
"Stuff no one would ever watch."
m em ber not Today, While the Wolverines do their
Faerber is in warm-up laps in Austin, Faerber
diving. Ann Arbor, just will be in the pool at Canham
like he was this - or maybe, in the air. ie's
time last year. probably there right now.
The rest "He can't get away from
a great of his team is in Austin, Texas diving," Li said. "I can see it. He
fighting for a national title, just can't quit if he tried."
11 be one like last year. So lie does one more.
r'c
O
y
n divers But as far as compar
inals in that's about as similar a
tjects to seasons have been for F
scipline, While he hopest
hree. into the School of Kit
-
isons go,
s the two
aerber.
to move
nesiology
U
RELEASE DATE- Thursday, March 27, 2014
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7lA bit daftBy Pancho Harrison 03/27/14
(c)2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
Sophomore Timothy Faerber is Michigan's best diver in more thanacdecade.
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