Scholar Stories: Fearless Cutshaw Finds Peace Diving, New Family at U-M
10/21/2020 10:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving, Features
Continuing the series that began in 2016-17, each Wednesday MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Absopure.
By Brad Rudner
If someone is afraid of heights, being a platform diver probably is not the right sport for them.
Imagine the 10-meter tower like an amusement park ride. But instead of a height requirement, only those who have no fear should walk the spiral steps to the top.
From the ground, it really does not seem all that intimidating. Up there, though, the view hits differently. Take a peek out over the edge, and suddenly it looks like a long way down.
At this point in her life, senior University of Michigan diver Christy Cutshaw is a seasoned veteran. Since her first dive off the platform at age 14, Cutshaw estimates she has performed more than 7,000 dives on tower alone.
There is no fear. Not anymore.
"I get a jolt from high places," said Cutshaw. "There's a thrill in it. Simply being up there isn't scary. I feel peaceful, which is a weird thing to say. It's like I'm in my own place.
"At the same time, you have to be a little bit crazy to do it."
Cutshaw is Chinese, born in the country's Jiangxi Province. Soon after she was born, her birth mother put her in a basket and left her outside the gate of a government building. She was turned over to a foster care center, where she stayed until Kenneth and Dee Cutshaw came to adopt her right around her first birthday.
Christy does not know who her birth parents are, nor does she know if she has any biological siblings. Chances are she will never get answers to those questions.
"When I was younger, I wanted to go look for them," she said. "I've known I was adopted for as long as I can remember. My parents haven't tried to hide it from me."
Aside from her parents, Christy has two siblings: older brother, Drew (Kenneth and Dee's biological son), and half-sister, Susanne. Together, the family has embraced Christy's Chinese heritage, from learning the language to celebrating the Chinese New Year.
Christy has made two trips to China, including a visit for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. As a 9-year-old, it was there she became enamored with platform diving.
Much like gymnastics, the sport of diving is an art. Each dive has a degree of difficulty (DD). Every miniscule detail -- from the rotation of your body to the way you hit the water -- is examined by a panel of judges. At the Big Ten Championships, for example, where there is a seven-member panel of judges, the top two and bottom two scores are thrown out, while the other three are added up and then multiplied by the degree of difficulty. For example, if Cutshaw scored 7-7-7-6-6-5-5 with a DD of 3.0, her score would be 57.00.
Here, practice really does make perfect, but the mental game is just as important.
"It's probably 60 percent (mental)", Cutshaw said. "The only thing I can control is what I do. I can't control how competitors do or how judges judge. This is an individual sport. You have to find your own space, and you have to be confident no matter what happens."
Look out below! Big dive from Christy Cutshaw! #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/l8nlFO8wmu
— Michigan Swimming & Diving (@umichswimdive) February 23, 2020
Honing in on the mental aspect intersects nicely with Cutshaw's academic interests. She is on track to graduate in the spring with a degree in biopsychology, cognition and neuroscience, also known as BCN. Put simply, it is a course of study about the brain and how it works.
Coming into college, she was interested in psychology, but wanted to take classes that expanded on that, particularly in biology and cognitive science. While here, she joined the Translational & Developmental Neuroscience Laboratory (TaD Lab), a lab that looks at brain development of children and teenagers in a lower socioeconomic status, and how their upbringing may increase their risk of depression and anxiety.
After graduation, Cutshaw plans to go to graduate school and wants to find a career with an environmental or animal psychology twist.
"I've always loved learning about animals," she explained. "Why not combine something I love with my major? I could be a researcher or biologist, something where I can do hands-on field work with animals."
Cutshaw is hoping for one final go-round on the diving boards. She is a two-time Big Ten Championships finalist, finishing seventh on one-meter in 2018 and seventh on platform in 2020, and qualified for the NCAA Championships twice. As a freshman, Cutshaw finished 10th on platform at the NCAA Championships, earning an All-America honorable mention. She likely would have made it again last spring had the coronavirus not robbed her and her teammates of the chance to qualify.
Ultimately, the spread and severity of COVID-19 will have the final say on what her senior season looks like. Much like the mental gymnastics she perfects in the lead-up to a dive, she is just trying to control what she can.
"It's been good so far," Cutshaw said. "As a team, we're pretty motivated to keep training and pushing ourselves even though there's a lot of uncertainty about the season."
Diving may be an individual sport, but at Michigan, Cutshaw found a team -- and more.
"It means I have a family no matter what," she said. "I came into this team and there was this group of people who would help me and show me around. As the years went by, I transitioned from a person who was asking for help to a person who is doing the helping.
"I'm incredibly thankful. I would not have gotten an experience as great as this if I went somewhere else."
Players Mentioned
