At times, it seemed as if the weight of the world rested on Jaime Jaax's shoulders, and in more ways than one.

The senior diver spent her final year as a high school competitor and four years at Penn State trying to deal with the pressures of fulfilling her personal athletic goals while battling countless injuries to the tendons and muscles in both shoulders.

"I've always had genetically bad joints and genetically bad shoulders," Jaax said. "I basically dealt with a few days off here and there, just managing the pain."

However, there came a time when Jaax decided she just couldn't manage any longer. Minor surgery revealed that the damage to her muscles was more severe than expected, and she lost her ambition after learning she would miss out on the Olympic Trials.

So, as her problematic shoulders threw yet another roadblock in the way of her dreams, Jaax decided that the easiest way to cope was to leave the pool, and the pain, behind.

"I was just pretty much devastated and didn't know if I could go back into the pool," said Jaax, who made the decision last spring to forego her final year of eligibility. "I didn't watch the Olympic trials or the Olympics on TV this summer or any of that. It was just a little too much for me at the time."

Although it seemed like the perfect solution, Jaax soon realized that distancing herself from the sport she loved was not going to make the bad memories and haunting disappointments go away.

So, instead, she decided to return to the pool, this time leaving the expectations and stress behind.

"Not wanting to have anything to do with the sport made me realize the only memories I had of the sport were bitter, and I just kind of sat down and thought for a long time about some way to kind of fix it," she said.

"The only conclusion I could come to was to compete another season, to really have fun and enjoy it, and to just be thankful for the chance to be in the water."

Jaax should be grateful, considering shoulder injuries have plagued her entire collegiate career. After missing the final part of her freshman season to have both shoulders surgically reconstructed, she courageously returned in the first meet of her sophomore year. However, in that same meet, she dislocated her shoulder again and was then forced to take a medical redshirt season.

"I kind of accelerated the rehabilitation a little bit, and looking back on it, no it wasn't worth it," Jaax said. "But, then again, it was a different injury. I didn't injure what I had the surgery on."

Jaax then dedicated herself to a year of rehab, and her success as a redshirt sophomore showed the benefits of some time off. It was, in her words, "an amazing season," and she went undefeated in dual meets, won the Big Ten championship, was named an NCAA All-American, and qualified for the U.S. national team.

Despite those accomplishments, Jaax again felt like a failure when the pain resurfaced last year. To her, there was one dream and one goal that mattered, and that was securing a spot on the Olympic team.

Each time she returned to the pool it reminded her of how close she had been, and that's why she decided to quit diving. However, she soon realized that the Olympics were not as important as she had built them up to be.

"It kind of helped me to grow up a little and realize that winning and being in the Olympics is not all the sport's about," she said. "Sometimes it's just about how you do it and how you feel about it."

So Jaax underwent surgery in the off-season to tighten her joints and, now that she has returned, she has never felt better. Although the physical limitations are still there, she is having the most fun she ever had in the pool and her outlook is extremely optimistic.

"It's a struggle," she said. "Without full range of motion there are a lot of things I can't do. I have had to change my style of practice, but it's a lot better than not being able to do it at all."

Although she has had to adapt to new ways of preparing for meets, Jaax has showed that, for the most part, the end results have been the same. Throughout four dual meets this semester, she is undefeated in both the one-meter and three-meter competitions.

She also competed in the Georgia Diving Invitational over the holiday break and reached the finals for both events.

And now, as she moves into the championship portion of the collegiate swimming and diving season, the time of year when she used to worry about places and finishes and titles, Jaax couldn't be more relaxed.

She also couldn't be more content with her decision to take on another year.

"After last season I really felt like a failure," she said. "I don't feel that anymore. I feel I have done the right thing no matter how well I compete this season. I haven't failed athletically, so it has definitely been a good thing."