This week, Fort Lauderdale once again takes centre stage as the world’s best high diving athletes come together for the World Aquatics High Diving World Cup and the World Aquatics Junior High Diving Championships.
Fort Lauderdale has been running Olympic-sized swimming pools since 1928, the first city in Florida to do so. Almost 100 years on, Aquatic Center Manager Laura Voet oversees an impressive state-of-the-art complex that reopened in 2022, and is one of just two permanent high diving facilities in the world. It is a proven home for the sport's biggest names.
Ahead of the competition this weekend, World Aquatics spoke to Voet to share Fort Lauderdale’s story.
A City Built on Aquatics
Voet’s pride in the aquatics facilities offered at Fort Lauderdale is clear to see.
“It's an honour and a privilege to work for the city of Fort Lauderdale, as long as I have,” she said.
"It's amazing to be part of making dreams come true for the athletes and welcoming the world to Fort Lauderdale in this unique sport and throughout the aquatics family"
“It's like no other because of the camaraderie and the sportsmanship.
“It's really a testament to all of the aquatic sports, especially when people come together and are able to celebrate the victories for each other. No matter what country they're from.”
Home for high divers around the world
The high diving tower, featuring nine platform levels including 15m, 20m and 27m, was added during the recent renovation and completed the picture. It is the only permanent, freestanding high diving structure in the western hemisphere.
“It's very exciting to have a high diving tower built specifically for this purpose, to offer springboard diving, platform diving, and high diving,” Voet added.
“We hope that this will be the inspiration that will spark the building of additional high diving towers that are standalone structures throughout the world. This will surely grow the sport of high diving.”
The structure is used every day, by elite high divers, Red Bull Cliff Divers and national teams from across the globe who make the journey to Fort Lauderdale to train.
“This World Aquatics High Diving World Cup has elevated the level of competition because the big names are here. To us they are like our family because we see them all the time. They come here on a regular basis, usually training for the next event,” Voet explained.
Built from the Ground Up
In a sport with the physical and mental demands of high diving, progression is everything. Athletes work through every level on their way up, with coaches requiring dry land training before any diver enters the water.
Voet outlined how the tower's nine levels are designed to support athletes at every stage of their development.
“Young athletes have to start at the bottom and work their way up to the top. Every level is used on a daily basis, and sometimes the athletes will go up to the top heights, 27m for the men and 20m for women,” she said.
“Athletes know that in order to execute those dives at the highest level they first need to perform them at the lower level. Athletes don't start at the top. They execute dives at every level on the way up before being able to execute a dive at the highest level.
"Education and development are integral here, and safety is certainly always an important consideration"
A Legacy Still Being Written
Fort Lauderdale is a place where athletes are given the platform to shine across all aquatic sports. Four world records in swimming have been set in the pool in the past year alone – three by Gretchen Walsh and one by Katie Ledecky.
The International Swimming Hall of Fame is also breaking ground on a new museum on the same peninsula later this year, ensuring Fort Lauderdale's place at the heart of global aquatics is continuing to grow.
The World Aquatics High Diving World Cup and the World Aquatics Junior High Diving Championships mark the next event in Fort Lauderdale’s ongoing aquatics story.
World Aquatics’ agreement with organisers in Fort Lauderdale also covers three consecutive High Diving World Cup events through to 2028, along with the Junior High Diving Championships once again in 2028.
“It's nice to have this event back and to again welcome the world's best high divers. In 2026 the High Diving World Cup and the Junior High Diving World Championships are the only events on the World Aquatics schedule in the United States across all of the aquatic sports,” Voet said.
“So we're really proud to have World Aquatics back in Fort Lauderdale attracting so many experienced high divers and also some new junior level athletes.”
Contributing: Greg Eggert