Sometimes a sport just needs a hero. Somebody who not only accomplishes the amazing, but incorporates the elusive allure that spawns media stardom. Obviously people like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson were good for basketball: but basketball didn't exactly need to be sold to the public. On the other hand, how many people thought much about competitive swimming before Mark Spitz hit the scene and splattered many-medalled posters across the walls of adolescent bedrooms? How many had even HEARD of competitive diving before Greg Louganis plunged onto their screens? Who gave a damn about gymnastics before Olga Korbutt? Think of what Billy Jean King and (looking even further back) Arnold Palmer did for women's tennis and TV golf, or what Tiger Woods and Arthur Ashe did for those sports in the racial microcosms. Whenever a sport suddenly grabs America's attention, whether it is soccer, free climbing, or jumping motorcycles over canyons, there is always some mediagenic idol behind the awareness.
That media charisma is a delicate thing. propped up with elements that often have little to do with sports at all. Looks certainly help. In fact, they might be essential. If Spitz or Louganis or Palmer had been ugly and brutal-looking, would they have been poster boys? But looks is not enough, either. Carl Lewis is not a bad-looking guy, just an unlikable Heaney-Grier alien. Nancy Kerrigan was accomplished and beautiful: except every time she opened her mouth you wanted to slap it off her. Being well-spoken helps a lot, but isn't essential. If Pele had spoken perfect English  and come on like Harry Belafonte, maybe the U.S. would have had a decent soccer team twenty years earlier. But diction didn't hurt Arnold Schwartzenegger, did it? Yeah, Arnie was an athlete first, remember? Sometimes media idols do more for their sports after making the jump to full-time media people. Did you ever see Chuck Norris or Bruce Lee actually compete? Or Jim Brown, for that matter?
So, if you are re-writing the record books in an obscure sport, AND are good-looking, AND can go on David Letterman without looking like a big a putz as he is, then you might suddenly find yourself in point position for a new interest in what you've been doing. Maybe you'll even get a movie out of it. Arnie (not Palmer, the other one) did the obvious iron-pumping flick, then moved on up, as.  you might have heard. Lynn Holly Johnson did the obvious ice-skating movie, then a James Bond. and that was it. And she didn't do for women's figure-skating as much as Kerrigan or even Tanya Harding did, or even Peggy Fleming. Free divers are sort of waiting to see if their activity is going to suddenly become a popular flash like racquetball, kayaking, and fly-fishing because of Mehgan Heaney-Grier.
She's got an awful lot going for her. First, she rewrote records. And some records get rewritten all the time, but others stay up there forever. The leading scorer in any sport is only as good as last season, but Ashe, Woods, and Jackie Robinson will always be on top, if you see what I mean. In that light, it is less important that Mehgan went to 155 feet (and back, never forget) on a single breath, she also broke the macho-barrier in a previously male-dominated sport and held, not just the Women's record, but THE record for the U.S. At the age of 18. Not bad diving for somebody who grew up in Minnesota.
The world can often be counted on to greet records in such activities the way they react to Guinness records: So what? But Mehgan has more going for her than breath-hold. For one thing, she's got looks. In fact, she could be accurately described as a beautiful professional model. And actress. Even a screenwriter. Well, technically. She only scripted an "Extreme Encounters" film  which features her underwater close encounters with sharks and alligators. She even hyphenated her name, not for femnazi reasons, but to honor her step-father. She's a great kid and it shows. She's also lucky, another indispensable quality for media/sports idol. She came into a sport ready to break into the mainstream--and a sport where women can compete equally with men. In fact, if you believe the Japanese pearl-diving industry, women are better at breath-hold diving than men.
But above all, she has that "IT" quality that the media and public dote on. Her videos, beauty and toothy beasts underwater, sell very well. She was featured in a big spread in "Outside"  magazine. (Outside has a weakness for cute athletes, but it isn't exactly "Self", either.) She shone on the Letterman show. She pops up. People like her. So is she going to single-handedly pull free diving out of obscurity, make it something yuppies brag about doing and buy special clothing for? Will she get a Wheaties box of her own? Star in the obvious free-diving movie and go on to become the next Ester Williams? We'll see. She's only 24.
Free divers don't necessarily WANT to be dragged into popularity. It's hard to imagine a more solitary athletic endeavor. Channel swimming is gregarious by comparison. It appeals to loners and oddballs. There aren't any endorsements or groupies. Should that change? On the other hand, don't you get tired of explaining to people what you're training for? Trying to explain that "diving" doesn't necessarily involve tanks and mathematics? That might change. If it does, Mehgan Heaney-Grier would certainly have been a major factor.
Click on picture to see Mehgan's website, with more pictures, e-mail address, and order info for videos.
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