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Talent search launched to find new Olympic divers
A young diver leaps in the air touching his toes off a high board
Aquatics GB has launched a talent search to find the next generation of Olympic divers to train in Sheffield at Ponds Forge

Aquatics GB hopes to find the next generation of Olympic divers to train at Sheffield's Ponds Forge.

Great Britain's Olympic Diving team has put the call out to emerging athletes to take up the sport to increase the chances of future Olympic success.

Aquatics GB has launched a talent search for the next generation of divers to compete in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, with training expected to take place at Sheffield's Ponds Forge.

There, new divers will be integrated into a performance centre which currently hosts five of Team GB's Paris Olympians, including bronze medallists Yasmin Harper and Anthony Harding.

The Diving-Gymnastics Talent Transfer Programme hopes to transfer talented 12-16 year olds in acrobatic sports such as gymnastics, cheerleading or even freestyle skiing to platform diving.

The idea of taking advantage of athletes' transferable skills has not yet been explored in diving, but has been successful in other sports.

UK Sport has previously hosted Talent ID days designed to take those with natural athleticism and match them up with a sport they may never have tried or even heard of before.

Two-time Olympic gold medallist Lizzie Yarnold was a county-level heptathlete before attending a Talent ID day and being matched with skeleton.

Meanwhile, before 2008, two-time Olympic champion rower Helen Glover had no experience in a boat, but had competed in hockey, tennis and swimming.

Two young women in white tracksuits smile as they hold up bronze medals from around their neck
Yasmin Harper trains at Ponds Forge and won an Olympic medal alongside Scarlett Mew Jensen in Paris

Aquatics GB talent transfer coach Georgina Davenport has now invited youngsters to come along to an assessment day at Ponds Forge on 8 November.

"We just simply ask that you're curious, and if it's something that interests you, you turn up," Davenport explained.

"It's a set of super-basic skills that anyone with an acrobatic background would be able to do.

"It is the ultimate goal to find the Olympian, but along the way, try a new sport in an environment that is a pretty cool environment to walk into."

Davenport herself came to the sport through gymnastics at the age of 13, before moving into coaching after retiring early through injuries aged 22.

She said people's understanding of the sport was often "way off".

"60% of the diving training that we do is on land, which I think throws everyone off and blows their mind," she said.

Any athletes selected for the training programme would train initially for eight hours a week for the first few months at Ponds Forge, before moving into a full training schedule of 16-20 hours per week working around school hours.

Team GB has achieved considerable diving success at recent Olympics.

At Rio 2016, Chris Mears and City of Leeds diver Jack Laugher became Team GB's first ever Olympic diving champions when they triumphed in the 3m synchro event, with Laugher going on to win silver in the 3m individual.

Four years later, Tom Daley and Matty Lee won a memorable 10m synchro gold while Team GB's divers brought home five medals from Paris 2024.

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