By TANYA MARISSEN -- London Free Press
 Even though he had just found out he might be going to the Olympics this fall, Mike Gowdy wasn't all that excited.

 "I don't try to look too far into the future," the 18-year-old London diver says. "I just take whatever comes my way."

 Gowdy had received the news he'd qualified for the Canadian Olympic trials in Montreal this weekend.

 It was a close call, though. He almost didn't make the cut.

 Gowdy had to receive 560 points in his best event, the three-metre dive, in the provincial diving champion-ships held recently at the London Aquatic Centre.

 Gowdy's score? 558.95. More than a point shy of the qualification mark.

 "If he was heartbroken, he didn't let us know about it," says Gowdy's father, Tom. "He just kept it to himself."

 Luckily, when the degree of difficulty was factored in, Canadian diving officials allowed Gowdy to qualify for the trials.

 And if he beats the three other divers competing for the same position on the Canadian team, he'll be Sydney-bound come September.

 But Gowdy and his family aren't setting their sights that high.

 Compared to the nervousness he usually feels before competitions, Gowdy said he feels relaxed about the upcoming qualifiers in Montreal because he doesn't really expect to win.

 "Mike's an underdog," Tom Gowdy sais. "But it's a good experience anyway."

 One experience Mike Gowdy is getting excited about is heading to Hawaii to attend university on a full diving scholarship.

 Gowdy was also offered full scholarships at universities in Nebraska and South Carolina, but decided to head to Hawaii because of the high quality of coaching there.

 And in his short diving career, Gowdy has found that coaches make all the difference.

 He started diving with the Forest City Diving Club when he was nine years old, but made the difficult decision to leave four years ago when he outgrew the coaching there.

 "Mike obviously had the drive to excel, so he needed to get to an area where there was better coaching staff and facilites," says Bev Noble, a member of the Canada Games committee for diving.

 When he finally found someone that could train him at the calibre he needed, that coach was in Vancouver.

 So Gowdy moved across the country by himself when he was 14.

 "I had no idea how hard it was going to be," he said. "It was so overwhelming: training twice a day, starting high school, living with a different family in a totally different province. But every year it got easier."

 After living in B.C. for four years, Gowdy is happy to be home for the summer.

 "It's great to be back in London," Gowdy admits. "My mom says living in B.C. was a character-building experience."

 Mike Milhausen, a member of the board of directors for Dive Ontario, agrees. "If you compare the young boy who started diving in London to the person who's diving now, it's quite the transformation."

 While Gowdy's long-term goal is to attend the 2004 Olympics in Greece, what really has him a litle rattled right now isn't qualifying for the Sydney Olympics or moving to Hawaii.

 It's starting his new summer job: diving the 73-foot tower at Canada's Wonderland.