RIO DE JANEIRO – As the last two sets of junior world championship medals were awarded on a sunny, breezy Sunday in Rio, hundreds of Brazilian football fans streamed into the Maracana Stadium, just a few meters outside the Parque Aquatico Julio Delamare. Had they been at the pool, they would have seen the future of diving as some of the best 14-15-year-old athletes in the world vied for gold.

First, Australia’s 14-year-old Maggie Grey dominated the girls’ platform event for ages 14-15, leading after prelims and holding the No. 1 spot after each of the three rounds in the final. She finished a full 32.70 points ahead of runner-up Rut Paez of Mexico, a triple gold medalist whose silver on platform meant that Paez was responsible for half of Mexico’s eight medals in Rio.  Diana Shevchenko took the bronze for Ukraine, 12.40 points behind Paez.

In the final event of the championships,  Germany went 1-2 in boys’ 1m springboard – led by Finn Awe, who also captured gold on the 3m two days earlier. Louis Forster took the silver. Valerii Malieiev captured the bronze for Ukraine, giving Ukraine its ninth medal – more than any of the 41 other nations competing in Brazil.

For details and reactions, read on.

Girls B – Platform

The platform event for girls’ 14-15 years old was based on seven dives: the first four from prelims and all three in the final.

When the final began, Grey had already accumulated at least 15.50 points more than any other diver, and her dives only got stronger as the rounds progressed. As the last girl on the start list, however, she still had to nail her back 2½ with 1½ twists to close the contest. And she did, earning 75.20 points for it – the highest score of the day.  When she accepted the gold medal, Grey wasn’t a newcomer to the Rio podium. On Day 1, a full week ago, she helped Australia take silver in the mixed team event.

In between, she said, “I was just training the whole time because I specialize in platform, but I tried to socialize and have some fun so I wasn’t just preparing for a whole week.”

Grey normally trains in Brisbane, future host of the 2032 Olympics. It’s also where 2023 men’s platform world champion Cassiel Rousseau trains. When Rousseau snapped China’s six-year winning streak at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Grey was at home, watching on TV with her whole family.  “It was surreal,” she recalled. “Cass and I are really close. He’s like an older brother to me.”

Even so, Rousseau didn’t text Grey before Sunday’s event. “That’s not something Cass would do,” she explained. Asked whether she thought he knew that she had just won, she replied, “probably not.”

Either way, Grey didn’t need much encouragement on Sunday. “I just tried to be confident and present the whole time, and that really worked,” she said.  

Meanwhile, Paez was super-focused just before winning her fourth medal in Brazil that she didn’t even look around before the athletes were announced to the crowd. “I was a little bit nervous in the beginning,” she said, “but then I grew comfortable.” Compared to her other events, she said, “I don’t have any one favorite. I like them all” and admitted that she was actually the most relaxed for the platform final, “so I enjoyed this moment.”

The third-place finisher, Shevchenko, was the only girl to win her first junior world championship medal on the last day. “I was so nervous but I jumped my best; I’m so happy, really,” she said. Like her teammates, she trains in Kiev “but every night Russia terrorizes Ukraine with 100 shell hits and bombs,” she said. “It’s so scary. But I know that my family watches my [diving] on the livestream. They want to say congratulations, but I don’t have internet, sorry. I only have one gigabyte and it’s finished.”

Shevchenko will be home to see her parents, brother, and sister soon – sort of. The trip from Rio, she said, “is 12 hours by plane, then we have one more plane. Then we have two trains: one train is five hours, and second [train] is 12 hours.”

Boys B- 1m Springboard

In the 1m event for boys’ 14-15 years old, scores were based on nine dives: the first five from prelims plus all four dives in the final. 

Gold medalist Finn Awe of Germany led after each round of the final, just as he had in the 3m event.  Asked which of his two gold-medal performances was more fun, Awe said, “The first one. I like 3-meter more than 1-meter and it was the first competition.” Once again, he said the secret to his success on Sunday was that “I focused and I do my thing. I visualized before each dive.”

Awe didn’t expect to share the podium with another German, Louis Forster. Awe said Forster’s silver medal “is very surprising, but I believe in him, that he could do that.”

Forster was in fifth place after the second round, but moved up to second in round three, which is where he stayed. All told, he earned 414.60 points for the day, just 10.95 behind gold-medalist Awe.

“I just have to say thank you to my family, to my coaches Maria Hoppe and Dmytro Ostapenko, to everyone who was on my side,” Forster said. The 14-year-old Forster trains in Leipzig, so he doesn’t train with Awe but they know each other from the junior national team. “Next, I think celebrate with the whole family,” he said. “I’m very happy.”

Bronze medalist Valerii Malieiev of Ukraine, 15, finished with 407.25 points. His hardest dives ended up being his lowest-scoring dives in the final, but still heads home with two medals from Rio because he also earned silver in the 3m event. Sunday’s bronze, he said, was a surprise because “I was hoping for higher.”

The Big Winners

When all 17 events were over, Ukraine earned the most medals with nine total. But Mexico and China won more gold than any other nation, with four apiece. Rut Paez was responsible for three of Mexico's golds, while Long Yiping won half of China’s gold medals.

Final Medal Tally | 2024 World Junior Diving Championships in Rio

• Ukraine – 9 medals (2 gold, 2 silver, 5 bronze)
• Mexico – 8 medals (4 gold, 4 silver)
• Germany – 7 medals (2 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze)
• China – 6 medals (4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
• USA – 5 medals (2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze)
• Italy –  4 medals (2 gold, 2 silver)
• Australia – 3 medals (1 gold, 2 silver)
• Colombia – 2 medals (1 silver, 1 bronze)
• Great Britain  - 2 medals (1 silver, 1 bronze)
• Norway – 1 medal (1 silver)
• Malaysia  - 1 medal (1 bronze)
• Canada – 1 medal (1 bronze)
• Czechia – 1 medal (1 bronze)
• Croatia – 1 medal (1 bronze)