This weekend in the capital of Brazil, all eyes will be on the views above Lake Paranoa when it hosts the first junior world high diving championships in history – featuring 15-to 16-year-old athletes competing on a 12m platform and 18- to 19-year-olds on the 15m tower. The competition begins Friday.
The junior event will also mark the first time China will send athletes to participate in a World Aquatics high diving event. One day later, the senior elites will begin their second (of two) High Diving World Cup events this year to try to qualify for the World Aquatics Championships - Singapore 2025.
How it Works
All high divers (both juniors and seniors) will execute four dives in their respective competitions. Two of those dives will have a maximum degree of difficulty. For 15- to 16-year-old boys and girls competing on the 12m platform, the max will be 2.4 DD. For the 18- to 19-year-olds diving from 15m, the cap will be 2.5 DD. For senior women on 20m, the first-round max will be 2.6DD and the third-round max DD will be 3.4. For senior men on 27m, the first-round will be limited to 2.8DD and the third-round DD will be capped at 3.6.
The other two dives are called “optionals” in which athletes may throw their hardest maneuvers. The highest cumulative points after all four rounds will determine the winner.
Elite Men to Watch
Three weeks ago, at the last World Cup in Manama, Bahrain, the 2024 world champion Aidan Heslop of Great Britain performed the hardest dive in the competition, a forward four somersaults with 3½ twists pike (with a 6.2DD). It scored 139.50 points, but it wasn’t enough to win. Instead, Heslop finished third – a tiny 4.20-points behind the winner and 2023 world champion, Constantin Popovici of Romania, and an even tighter 2.40 points behind the runner-up, James Lichtenstein of the US who is in the middle of a breakthrough season at age 29. All three will return to action for rounds 1 and 2 on Saturday, and the men’s final two dives on Sunday.
Elite Women to Watch
On the women’s side, the focus will be on four-time world champion Rhiannan Iffland of Australia, who was leading after each of the first three rounds in Bahrain, but placed an uncharacteristic ninth after landing her final dive feet-first (as mandated) but her arms were above her shoulders (a big no-no). The error brought a significant penalty and she only scored 47.30 points for her back triple with two twists. Iffland will certainly be on the rebound in Brasilia, but Canada’s Molly Carlson has emerged as her chief rival, and Carlson will be looking to match her win from the Bahrain World Cup.
Third place is anyone’s guess. It could be Native American diver, Kaylea Arnett, 31, who has Chickasaw heritage and finished third in Bahrain. Arnett has made all but one podium in every event she’s contested this year (including the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series), after a surprise fourth-place finish in her World Aquatics Championships debut in February 2024. Or it could be Simone Leathead of Canada, who was second in Bahrain and was only 20 years old when she placed fourth at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. The elite women will compete on Saturday and Sunday just before the men each day.
Singapore Qualifying
In addition to prize money ($8,000 US for first place), the seniors will be trying to clinch berths at the next World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, in 2025. The top 18 male and 18 female divers based on cumulative points determined by their placements at the Bahrain World Cup and the Brasilia World Cup will qualify for the World Championships, but only three per nation per gender can compete. World Aquatics also reserves the right to invite wild cards.
Who’s Competing in Juniors?
The historic high diving junior world championships begin on Friday. There will be a total of eight entries on 12m (3 girls and 5 boys) and 29 on the 15m platform (10 girls and 19 boys). All told, the juniors will represent five continents. The largest contingent will be from Mexico with six junior high divers, followed by Switzerland with five, then Brazil, China, Ukraine and the US with four apiece.
Lichtenstein of the US, the runner-up in Bahrain, said, “I’ll admit that I’m a little bit envious of the younger generation,” explaining that if he’d had access to a tower that went up to 27 meters and could high dive next to the best professional athletes in the world as teenager, “I can’t even imagine how good I’d be.”
Lichtenstein’s advice to the youth competing in Brasilia: “Just have fun. Figure out if you want to have a future in this. If you do, pay attention to the competition. If you don’t, enjoy your trip to Brazil.
“Just do your thing. Trust your training. Enjoy it. Take the time. Look around,” he said.
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