Last November, Lia and Mia Cueva Lobato were 13 and too young to compete at the 2024 junior world championships – but five months later, they burst onto the senior scene and took silver in women’s 3m synchro at the World Cup in Guadalajara. Meet Mexico’s twin sensations.
The twins may be the same height, wear braces, and have similar opinions, but Lia and Mia say they are not identical.
For one thing, they point to their heads.
Mia parts her hair on the right; Lia parts hers on the left.
They aren’t even the only world-class divers in their family. The twins’ older sister, Suri, competed at last fall’s junior world championships in Rio de Janeiro and placed 10th on the 1m springboard in the B Group (for 14- to 15-year-olds) while the twins kept training.
Five months later, all three sisters were eligible for the 2025 World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, where the twins rocketed to a silver medal, placing second, 25.71 points behind 2024 Olympic gold medalists and three-time world champions, Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen of China. They were also 12.23 points ahead of third-place finishers Maddison Keeney and Alysha Koloi of Australia.
One day later, Lia placed fifth individually in 3m.
At 14, the twins are defeating women on the world stage who are nine or 10 years older.
Just to make the World Cup roster, Lia said, “They made a competition in Mexico to [decide] who will come here – and we won, so we came.”
As partners, “synchronization comes easily for us,” Mia said.
Lia verbally counts down the pair as they prepare to dive. The reason, she said, is because “I speak louder…and I’m older,” adding that “the difficult part is the exit of the dive and entry to the water.”
Both say that the most important people in their lives are their family, which includes a younger brother, parents, and grandparents.
“We all believe in each other, so we get confidence in ourselves,” Lia said.
They also agree that their silver medal from Guadalajara is their most valuable possession to date.
“If I lost that medal in the airport or something,” Lia said, “I would be so sad.”
“It's my first international medal,” Mia explained. “And behind that medal is a lot of training – eight or nine hours a day” split between two daily sessions, both of which include pool time and gym time.
They share a coach, Ivan Bautista, but they don’t have any nicknames yet.
“Most people just call us the twins – or “gamelas” in Spanish – because they don't know who is who,” said Mia.
Asked if each had a secret talent, Mia said, “I’m good at writing because I have a good imagination.”
Lia said, “I’m good at dancing,” specifically, whatever’s trending on TikTok. She sometimes posts her own moves on the channel at @LIAYATZIL
If there’s ever a day when they don’t feel like going to practice, Mia said, “the things that have happened here [at the World Cups] is the motivation to continue training every day.”
Lia agreed. “We are motivated to learn more about the other divers, and to beat the Chinese and the other divers.”
It’s already starting to happen for their Mexican teammates. Osmar Olvera Ibarra, for example, captured two medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics (a bronze in 3m and the silver in 3m synchro with Juan Manuel Celaya Hernandez).
The twins watched it unfold on TV while vacationing with their family in Cancun.
Mia said she was excited but not surprised: “We expected Osmar to win one or two medals in Paris. In synchro they were so near to the Chinese. [It came down to the last dive.] And that’s why we think we can beat the Chinese also in some years.”
To that end, Olympic medalists have shared some advice.
“Osmar and Gabi [Agundez Garcia] told us to get motivated and enjoy the competition in both Guadalajara and Windsor, and that if you don’t make a good dive, don’t worry about it because it's your first competition,” Lia said.
The twins have already qualified for the World Cup Super Final in Beijing, and if they make Mexico’s roster for the 2025 world championship in Singapore, they may have the additional opportunity to check out what excellence looks like in some of the other World Aquatics disciplines.
Outside of diving, Mia said her favorite would be artistic swimming. “It’s elegant,” she said. “I like how the routine looks. But I would not be able to wear all that makeup and hair gel.”
Lia said surfing was her favorite (non-diving) aquatic sport. But it won’t be contested in Singapore because it’s not governed by World Aquatics, so her next-favorite event would be men’s and women’s water polo. But then she quickly changed her answer to swimming “because I like to see their speed.”
Her favorite swimmer at the moment? “The Italian one, Thomas Ceccon,” Lia said.
Asked why, she just giggled.
Prompted by a guess: “Guapo?” she nodded heartily, giggled some more, and went on her way.