As 2024 draws to a close, it’s time to revisit some of the year’s most compelling storylines in high diving.
The 2024 high diving season was anything but predictable. Here’s a quick look back at seven memorable moments.
Iffland four-peats: In February, Rhiannan Iffland won an unprecedented fourth world title in a row, dating back to 2017. To do so, the 32-year-old Australian had to make up 14.50 points at the midpoint of the 20m competition to overtake Canada’s Molly Carlson.
“I knew it was gonna be a fight,” Iffland said in Doha. “I’m really proud that I didn’t give up.” In the end, Carlson captured her second straight silver while Jessica Macaulay won her third bronze medal in a row to end her high diving career at age 31. In fact, the Doha women’s podium was an exact replica of the 2023 world championship podium in Fukuoka, Japan.
Heslop’s risk = reward: Aidan Heslop of Great Britain, 21, won his first high diving world title by using the hardest dive in the world (a 6.2 DD forward quad with 3½ twists). He debuted the dive seven months earlier at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships where he placed fifth. But in Doha, it earned the highest single-dive score (151.90 points in the final round), and catapulted him into the lead with a total of 422.95. Two-time 27m world champ Gary Hunt had a chance to overtake him, but ended up with silver by thanks to a highly-polished quad-twisting triple which had a 5.2 DD and had once been the hardest dive in the world. “I’m absolutely ecstatic,” said the new world champ. “I was really thinking about that big dive. I knew if I could put that down, I could be on top of the podium.” Catalin-Petru Preda of Romania, the 2023 silver medalist, fell 12.75 points short of Heslop’s total for bronze.
Hunt takes 5th world medal: By claiming silver in Doha, Gary Hunt earned his fifth world championship medal in all six editions of the high diving world championships. He admitted afterwards, “I was not really expecting to push for the gold medal. To find myself in [that] situation was a shock. I could not believe it…I’m not going to leave [my career] with a silver medal! I’ll be back!” he said. Hunt earned his first three medals for Great Britain: 2013 silver, 2015 gold, 2019 gold, and his last two for France: 2023 bronze, 2024 silver.
Hunt transitions to 10m and becomes an Olympian at age 40. After collecting his fifth high diving world championship medal in Doha, the high-diving legend switched his focus to men’s 10m synchro diving at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Hunt and Lois Szymczak placed eighth for the host nation. Hunt was the first diver since 1912 to make his Olympic debut at age 40 – calling it “a special moment…a gift…and nothing but pleasure.” But the transition wasn’t easy. Olympic diving required Hunt to land head-first from a 10m platform instead of landing feet-first from 27m. Also, since 2017, he’s had “the twisties” – the same problem that led US gymnast Simone Biles to withdraw from the all-around final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Even so, Hunt was happiest Olympian in Paris.
Popovici rebounds: In September, the 2023 World and World Cup champion Constantin Popovici of Romania bounced back from an uncharacteristic ninth-place finish at the 2024 World Championships to win the 2024 World Cup in Manana, Bahrain – ahead of the American runner-up James Lichtenstein and world champion Aidan Heslop of Great Britain who placed third. But it was tight; less than 4.5 points separated all three medallists.
Americans on the Rise: After placing fourth at the World Championships in Doha, two Americans Kaylea Arnett, 31, and James Lichtenstein, made podiums in the Bahrain World Cup. Arnett, a member of the indigenous Chickasaw nation, had recently transitioned from 3m and 10m diving. In Bahrain, she placed third behind a Canadian 1-2 finish, led by Carlson, the 2023 world championship silver medalist. Lichtenstein, a Notre Dame University math whiz whose signature dive is a back quint (with a 5.3 degree of difficulty) placed second in Bahrain, 1.8 points behind Popovici and 2.40 points ahead of the new world champion, Heslop.
First Junior World Champ: In October, Lacey Hema of Australia made history by becoming the first World Aquatics’ junior world champion in high diving. On the 12m tower in Brasilia, Brazil, Hema won the girls’ 15- to 16-year-old division, a full 67.20 points ahead of Canada’s Kelly-Ann Tessier, the runner-up. Fiona Keilly of Canada claimed the inaugural bronze medal. All three girls had turned 16 less than two weeks before the event.