Rhiannan Iffland has dominated women’s high diving since 2016. This month, the Aussie will vie for her third consecutive world title. But this time, she faces pressure from a new competitor since she took gold four years ago. Find out where Iffland’s been and who could snap her three-peat.
Rhiannan Iffland could have been a cop. She could have been a trampolinist. Instead, she became a high diver, flipping and twisting from 20-meter towers for points. Now, the Australian is heavily favoured to win her third World Aquatics Championship title in a row, in Fukuoka, Japan.
Over the last six years, she has achieved so much perfection – perfect scores and undefeated seasons – that, clearly, she could not have chosen a better career.
There has only been one blip, really. At Iffland’s first senior event, the 2016 FINA World Cup in Abu Dhabi, she placed 10th of 10 divers in the United Arab Emirates. After that, she was practically unstoppable.
That same year, 2016, she won her first Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series title. No other woman has won it since. In fact, the six-time series champ recorded perfect records in 2019 and 2021 and was the first woman on the tour to score a perfect dive. Last year, she won seven of eight events.
She has only lost twice since 2019 – both times to 24-year-old Molly Carlson of Canada, who denied Iffland at the 2022 Red Bull season opener in Boston and, this May, at the 2023 World Aquatics World Cup in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Did it rattle her? Hardly.
Despite taking no high dives during the six months between October 2022 and May 2023 (partly to preserve her body, and partly because she didn’t have access to a competition-height tower), Iffland rebounded from the rare second-place finish to sweep the first three Red Bull events this season leading up to the world champs.
In Fukuoka, the 31-year-old will try to be the first person to claim three high diving world titles.
“She's getting tested a little bit now, but I think she's still got what it takes to stay ahead,” said two-time world champion Gary Hunt. “You can see how comfortable she is in the last part of her dive, the Barani, the last somersault with a half twist.”
Unlike the head-first landings of 3m and 10m diving, high divers use the Barani to exit the dive and land feet-first – just as trampolinists do on each bounce.
“I would say it’s the most important part of the dive,” said Hunt. “It's where you can fix any mistakes and get a good entry, which is the last thing that the judges see. There's nobody with a more consistent ripped entry than Rhiannan.”
In the Beginning
When Iffland entered the high diving scene, the woman to beat was Rachelle Simpson of the US. Simpson had won the 2014 and 2015 Red Bull series.
But the women’s tour was new compared to the five-year-old men’s circuit, “so in our eyes, and I think in everyone's eyes, we were still waiting for true divers – like NCAA or European champion-level – to make the transition,” said 2017 FINA world champion Steven LoBue. “We knew that once a girl stepped in with some higher-level talent, she would do really well. And it happened to be Rhi.”
Iffland had been a junior elite diver at the New South Wales Institute of Sport in Sydney and, before that, a competitive trampolinist. At 15, she specialized in diving, with a focus on 10 meters. Eventually, she assumed another career would beckon.
“I actually intended to join the police force when I gave up 10-meter diving,” she said. “But then I was involved in diving shows and thought I’d just do it for a little while, and now, here we are.”
She did her first high dive (higher than 10m) at a park in southeastern France, in the Rhone-Alpes.
“The first time I went up, the whole way I was climbing, I was like, ‘Ugh, still climbing, still climbing.’ Those thoughts still happen now. ‘Are there more steps to go or is this high enough?’
“But I was driven,” Iffland said. I put time and effort into putting myself in a good position to dive at 20 meters. The positives outweighed the fear.”
Plus, she had her elegant Barani. To this day, Iffland considers it her greatest strength. “The way I mechanically come out of the dive is from trampolining,” she said. “It’s important to do it smoothly, end up straight, and give it enough speed to land perfectly vertical. I like the flow of my Barani and how it looks most of the time.”
“On top of that,” LoBue recalled, “she learned some pretty difficult dives and was – far and away – the most consistent diver among men AND women. She is still pushing her own limits, and in doing so, she's forcing everybody else to push their limits.”
“She learned some pretty difficult dives and was – far and away – the most consistent diver among men AND women. She is still pushing her own limits, and in doing so, she's forcing everybody else to push their limits.”
Among them is Molly Carlson, a four-time Canadian national junior champion and three-time All-America at Florida State University. In 2021, the Red Bull rookie placed third in the overall standings. A year later, Carlson snapped Iffland’s 13-0 winning streak.
Iffland viewed it as “a wake-up call.”
It's the first time we've seen her under pressure,” Hunt said. “We can't say that she's crumbled.”
Instead, Iffland won the next seven events.
Once LoBue saw Carlson emerge with her deep diving background and connection to the strict Canadian program, he knew Iffland could be challenged. In Montreal, Carlson also has access to an indoor 20-meter platform that she can train on all year.
“Having a really-really solid national program and having access to that facility is a dangerous combination,” LoBue said.
In May 2023, Carlson beat Iffland again at the World Cup.
“She’s strong and young and she’s definitely got a lot of potential,” Iffland said of Carlson. “It’s exciting to battle with Molly.” But Iffland knows Carlson isn’t much of a twister. Carlson admits it. And Carlson will be competing in her first world championship.
And while the ebullient Carlson might be showing great form, Hunt said, “I think we'll see a stronger Rhiannan in Japan. I can't wait!”