This weekend, a high diving double header will be in full swing at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center in Florida, about 30 miles north of Miami. 

On Friday and Saturday, 35 professional athletes from 15 countries will execute some of the world’s most spectacular and difficult dives as they vie for prize money and medals at their World Cup season opener.  Men will make two dives each day from the 27m platform, and women will do the same from 20m. The highest combined score will determine the winner.

After that, 14 junior athletes will aim for their own podiums by launching off the 15-meter tower in the second high diving junior world championships ever held, this Saturday and Sunday at the same facility as the pros. Juniors will be separated into two age groups, however: Group A (ages 17-19) and Group B (ages 15-16), so there will be four medal events: girls A, boys A, and girls B, boys B.

Elite men and women to watch

When the action begins on Friday, the professional women’s lineup will include Canadian all-stars Molly Carlson, 27, and Simone Leathead, 23, who have had a lock on all the world championship silver medals since 2023. Carlson also won the Fort Lauderdale event in 2023. Headliners from the home team will include Kaylea Arnett, 33, and Colorado-born Meili Carpenter, 38. (Notably absent, however, will be five-time reining world champion Rhiannan Iffland of Australia, who was a late scratch.)

The elite men’s field will include two former world champions: the 2023 world champ Constantin Popovici of Romania, 37, and the 2024 gold medalist, Aidan Heslop of Great Britain, 24, who will be making a highly-anticipated return after having back surgery on May 20, 2025.

Challenging them, as always, will be Spain’s Carlos Gimeno (2025 world championship silver medalist), 36, and Catalin-Petru Preda of Romania, 34, (the 2024 world championship bronze medalist).

Missing from the action, however, will be the reigning world champion, James Lichtenstein, 31, of the USA. According to USA Diving, the Notre Dame graduate is nursing an injury.

Junior field

As for the younger high divers on the scene, all of them will be trying to establish themselves as the next generation of divers who prefer to compete even higher than Olympians (whose events top out at 10m). Several of them already had a head start at the inaugural junior world championships in October 2024. 

Back then, the event was contested in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, but the competition was shortened due to weather and safety concerns so only one of the four age groups was able to complete all four rounds of diving. All the medalists from that group of 15- to 16-year-old girls will be returning this year to compete for medals in the 17- to 19-year old category, including the champion Lacey Hema of Australia, runner-up Kelly-Ann Tessier of Canada, and bronze medalist Fiona Keilly of Canada.

Also returning will be the 2024 boys’ 15- to 16-year-old champion Wang Zile of China, and the 2024 girls’ 17- to 19-year-old gold medalist Ge Zhenyu, also of China. In their age groups, their 2024 medals were based on two rounds of diving.

This year, weather shouldn’t be a problem. The early forecast looks good for all three days: clear skies and warm temperatures with light winds.  So get ready!