At the age of seven, Pitt diver Dennis Nemtsanov dreamed of becoming a swimmer, even though… At the age of seven, Pitt diver Dennis Nemtsanov dreamed of becoming a swimmer, even though he never tried it before.

Despite his inexperience, Nemtsanov was lucky in one respect. His father was a two-time Olympian for the Soviet National Diving team, and would take him to a local swimming club to help his son follow his early dream. Nemtsanov had his arms measured by one of the coaches at the club and from there he was to prove his swimming abilities all of its coaches.

“After they measured my arms, they tossed me into the pool and told me to swim to the other side,” Nemtsanov said. “I was really scared because I had never swum before, so I grabbed onto the side of the pool and just held on.”

Following his swimming dreams seemed like a bad idea to him until his father took him to his personal diving coach to teach him how to swim. But after several months of swimming instruction, Nemtsanov wanted more, so his father’s coach began to show him how to dive. Diving then became his passion, and he realized just how much he enjoyed the sport.

The passion that Nemtsanov has for diving has shown through this season for the Panthers, as he, along with his teammates, have Pitt primed for yet another Big East swimming and diving championship.

“Boris,” as his teammates call him, joined the Panther diving program after a one-semester stint at Louisiana State University. But after arriving in Baton Rouge, La., Nemtsanov and his father realized that LSU wasn’t the place for him.

“My dad believed that if I stayed, I would never get any better,” Nemtsanov said. “So I began to look all over to find a new school.”

Head swimming coach Chuck Knowles, along with diving coach Julian Krug convinced Nemtsanov to head north and join the Panther tradition of swimming and diving excellence.

“I really enjoyed my visit to Pittsburgh,” Nemtsanov said. “I liked everything, especially the coaches because [Knowles and Krug] are the best in the nation. They know how to approach your training to make you better.”

With Nemtsanov, Knowles and Krug knew they had someone who was truly gifted and experienced. From day one, Knowles and Krug noticed Nemtsanov’s drive and desire to become better.

“Watching Dennis come in and challenge his teammates to be better in what they did and to be better leaders has made a difference for our team,” Knowles said.

Nemtsanov’s work ethic can be traced to his father. His father instilled in him the idea that hard work multiplied by time would give him great results, but he had to be hungry for it. Nemtsanov has taken the advice to heart.

“We have a leader who leads by example,” Krug said of Nemtsanov’s work ethic. “The rest of the team is keeping Boris on his toes because they are motivated to excel just as he is, but he knows he can’t let his guard down because they’ll catch him.”

After watching Nemtsanov practice, one can see his focus and drive with each dive.

As he effortlessly twists and turns toward the water, Nemtsanov keys in on his technique making sure to execute each piece of his dive to perfection. Following his dive, he turns to check his approach, technique and execution on a tape delayed screen where he will get further instructions from Krug, who breaks the total dive down for Nemtsanov.

“He’s in a great position to contribute a great amount to our program,” Krug said. “His experiences are above and beyond many others at this level, and as a result he learned a different set of ropes.”

The end result for the Panthers is a bright future in their diving program. After years of Miami dominating the diving portion of the Big East Championships, the Panthers have a new mission in mind. They want to reclaim the diving events as their own.

Because of Dennis’ talent, we are now pursuing more divers of his caliber,” Knowles said. “We have the facilities and coaching staff to attract the athletes.”