As 2025 winds down, it’s time to revisit the year’s key moments in high diving.
Perfect season: Rhiannan Iffland was unbeatable in 2025. Not only did she win all four stops on the Red Bull Cliff Diving Series, she also won the lone World Cup in Porto Flavia, Italy, and captured her fifth consecutive world championship crown.
“I never would have thought 10 years ago I would be holding my fifth medal,” Iffland said in Singapore. “It’s insane. I’m blown away.”
During three days of competition under a new six-dive format at the world championships, the 33-year-old Australian blew away the field with an especially strong fifth dive, a 4.3 DD double-twisting back triple which scored 105.35 points.
“What drives me every day [is] to see how the sport is growing,” Iffland said. “I love travelling and competing, and there’s no better feeling than pulling off a good dive.”
New Star: 18-year-old American Maya Kelly snared a bronze medal in her senior world championship debut – behind only Iffland and silver medalist Simone Leathead of Canada. Kelly was the youngest high diver in the whole competition, fresh out of the junior ranks where the women’s platform tops out at 15 meters. “I’m just glad that I showed what I could do,” said the university student from Minnesota. “I’m excited for the future.”
New champ: James Lichtenstein scored another high diving breakthrough for the US and achieved a life goal by winning his first world championship title. Lichtenstein, a Notre Dame University math star whose signature dive is a back quint (with a 5.3 degree of difficulty) came from behind and finished 3.60 points ahead of Carlos Gimeno of Spain to capture gold in Singapore. “I am absolutely thrilled,” Lichtenstein said. “I know I can dive well, but putting it all together when it counts is an exhilarating feeling.”
Lichtenstein followed up his world title one month later by winning the Porto Flavia World Cup in Italy, ahead of 2023 world champion Constantin Popovici of Romania and third-place Gimeno. “The start of the season was not too hot,” Lichtenstein admitted, “but at World Aquatics events, I’ve been killing it. It’s amazing to be on top of the world now!”
US women show depth: Also at the Porto Flavia World Cup in late August, Kaylea Arnett, 32, an indigenous American who had placed fourth at the world championships, earned her best World Cup finish to date, second behind Iffland. Fellow American Lisa Faulkner placed fourth at age 37. With Kelly, Arnett, and Faulkner all in the mix, the US may emerge as a cross-generational force in 2026.
Brave rebound: One month before the 2025 world championships, Molly Carlson of Canada had a horrifying crash that could have easily taken her out of contention. On June 27, while training at Polignano a Mare, Italy, Carlson skidded off the edge of the 20-meter tower, tumbled wildly, and yet somehow splashed down safely, feet-first. The botched takeoff left the 2023 and 2024 world championship silver medalist with a massive foot bruise and a deep psychological scar.
Yet there was Carlson, in Singapore, putting pressure on Iffland through the first four dives, only to finish ninth, after an uncharacteristically low-scoring final dive (a forward quad with a half twist, with a 4.4DD).
Then, in late August, Carlson boarded a plane to Italy again and placed third at the Porto Flavia World Cup. That bronze felt like a victory, she said, just “to be back in Italy, NOT slip off a platform, and have fun. I’m so happy to be back out there with the girls. I definitely had a tough year, a lot of anxiety.”
Notable absence: One major absence this year was Aidan Heslop. The 2024 world champion was unable to defend his world title in Singapore due to back surgery. The 23-year-old Brit best known for his high-difficulty dives announced on May 18 that he was sitting out the 2025 season.
“I’ve been battling a back injury for nearly a year now,” he wrote on Instagram. “Surgery is unavoidable [but] taking a year off to secure another 15 pain-free seasons is a trade I’m willing to make.” At last check, Heslop was scheduled to make his first 20-meter dive post-surgery in mid-December. If that goes well, coach Stephane Lapointe said Heslop should be able to train half of his dives on 27 meters by the end of January, and the other half by the end of February 2026.