UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 17, Page 9
January 20, 1994
Kuwaiti national team diver on University squad

     Diving is diving. Whether on the national diving team in Kuwait,
competing all over the world or on the University swimming team in contests
at Carpenter Sports Building, Ali Alhasan, a freshman electrical
engineering major, says he feels the same about the sport wherever he is.
     Under a program sponsored by the Kuwaiti Embassy to encourage the
study languages abroad, he arrived in the U.S., in the fall of 1992 and
spent his first semester in Delaware studying at the English Language
Institute. Normally, the program would have ended there and the foreign
student would have gone back to Kuwait.
     To the University swim team's advantage, Alhasan liked Delaware so
much he decided to apply for admission and was accepted.
     As a member of the national diving team in Kuwait, Alhasan has
competed in England, Holland, Yugoslavia, Germany and Bulgaria, and he
plans to dive for his country in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
     "It's hard to balance training for the Olympics and school, but you
get into a schedule," he said. Alhason and the other three divers on the
University's swim team spend about 20 hours a week in practice.
                                                  -Jennifer Jones