Meet UK diving phenom Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, two very young Chinese divers captured both hearts and headlines when they won gold and silver medals on the women’s 10m platform. But the UK also had a prodigy in the event.

Sixteen-year-old Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix placed seventh. It was Britain’s best individual result by a female diver in Tokyo.

Yet five months later, the Londoner almost quit the sport.

Spendolini-Sirieix said she became so consumed with wanting to prove herself that “I started to believe that if I wasn’t good at diving and school, I wasn’t good at anything.”

So in 2021, she said, “I went through a time when I just didn’t like anything.

“When you get overwhelmed with things you can’t control, it affects your diving. If you’re not mentally ‘on it’ on that 10m [platform], the risks are quite severe.”

“I learned the very-very hard way.”

Eventually, she said, “I was going to quit, so I had to tell someone that I wasn’t okay.”

When she finally did, she said 2022 became “a very transformative year for me.”

“I’ve always known that I had a support team. I just didn’t know how to express myself. Pride gets in the way; stubbornness gets in the way.

“So now, I pray, I use God. I use my family. I’m very open if I’m feeling tired or overwhelmed. I talk to my coach. I talk to my parents. I talk to my friends. I tell them, ‘Listen, this is how you can support me today. I’m not feeling my best. Could you help me through it?’  Making sure you don’t go through it alone is extremely important. No one wants to see you suffer in silence.”

Once she began to prioritize her mental health, Spendolini-Sirieix made a streak of podiums in 2022. That June, she earned a team bronze at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest. In August, she seized a trio of medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK – including golds in 10m and 10m synchro events. Later that month, she repeated the same victories at the 2022 European Championships in Rome. She ended 2022 as the junior world champion on the 10m platform in Montreal – her first and last junior world championships – while simultaneously studying for “A-level” university entrance exams.

Fast forward to January 2024, and Andrea (pronounced “ahn-DRAY-ah”) is in a much-much happier place. The 19-year-old daughter of the French maître d’ and television personality Fred Sirieix and her Italian mother, Alessandra, has been accepted at a London university. She plans to enter this fall after the Paris Olympics. In the meantime, Spendolini-Sirieix has been able to dive and train full-time. 

It’s been more than refreshing.

“I can actually concentrate at training and be 100 percent focused on my diving,” she said by phone from London, four days before she would fly to Qatar.

Under the guidance of coach Alex Rochas, Spendolini-Sirieix has been working on her stamina, consistency and, she said, “instead of chasing a person or a competitor, I’m just pushing myself.”

Already, in December, she set a personal-best total score to win the 2023 British Diving Cup on 10m. Her 393.50-point tally was also a national record.

“Definitely I’m a lot happier, a lot more focused, and my thoughts are a lot brighter than they used to be,” she said. “So that is a great sigh of relief… and a testament to the power of God and the love of family and support of everyone around me.”

In addition to opening up to those around her, Spendolini-Sirieix said another key to improving her outlook has been to “just stop complaining."

“Honestly, it helps a lot!  Because if you just repeat, repeat, repeat: negative, negative, negative, it starts to become your reality."

“When you're frustrated, feeling alone and upset, asking yourself, ‘Why? Why? Why?’ Instead of degrading yourself, putting yourself down, try to find ways to build yourself up and get yourself into a position where you are working out of the situation, rather than digging yourself deeper into your doubts and frustrations. Talk to people around you and ensure that you don't become your worst enemy."

Doha is only about 4,100 miles from her home, but her goals there will be simple: “Get through the rounds, enjoy the competition, and get as much experience as possible pre-Olympic Games,” she said. “You can never get too much experience.”

Especially when facing the reigning Olympic champion Quan Hongchan, 16, and her teammate from China, silver medallist Chen Yuxi, 18, who will vie for her fourth consecutive world title.

“It’s not impossible to beat them,” Spendolini-Sirieix said. “They’re human. I’ve grown really-really close with Quan and Chen."

“I look at how they train, how they compete. I see what the Chinese are doing that I’m not doing that can benefit my performance. I try to emulate."

 “They don't complain. They don't chat. When it's training time, it's training time. When it's competition time, it's competition time. They also study technique. How can they be stronger? How can they be quicker? How can they move in a certain way?"

“Is it the takeoff? Is it the arm reach? Is it the entry? It’s looking at niche things that maybe your competitors aren't looking at – and it's going from there."

“I had a Chinese coach for eight or nine years, Lin Chen, the 1986 women’s world champion on 10m. So I have experienced the Chinese way of coaching. It's BRUTAL. But it does build you into a diver that looks to perfect [things],” she said.

 How?

“You do as many reps as possible."

“But what works for some divers might not work for others. I don't copy and paste what they do. I'm also twice their height – not exactly, that’s just an expression. But I see what they do and I create it so that it fits me.”

If all that work earns Spendolini-Sirieix her first individual podium at a senior world championship, well done.

Either way, after Doha, she will return to the London Aquatic Center to train for the 2024 British Olympic trials. And if that goes well, Spendolini-Sirieix has one goal for Paris.

“Medal,” she said.

Does the colour matter?

“Nope,” she replied. And with that, she headed back to the platform for practice.