Tokyo Olympics 2021: Aussie diver Cassiel Rousseau has potential to be a diving superstar
Cassiel Rousseau, who took up diving just four years ago, has matched it with some of the world’s best divers and now has Paris in his sights.
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Cassiel Rousseau, who took up diving just four years ago, has matched it with some of the world’s best divers — pulling off Australia’s best men’s Olympic diving performance in 13 years.
It was a star-studded start list including Great Britain’s Tom Daley, China’s Jian Yang and European champion Aleksandr Bondar — all of whom have been diving much longer than Rousseau.
Even the two teenage stars, Japan’s Rikuto Tamai and Ukraine’s Oleksii Sereda, have had more experience in the sport than 20-year-old Rousseau.
Australia hasn’t had a 10m men’s platform diver on the podium at an Olympics since Matthew Mitcham won gold in Beijing. Since then the best performance had been Domonic Bedggood’s 12th place finish at Rio.
But Rousseau amassed 430.35 points across his six dives to finish eighth.
“It was pretty surreal being part of that competition, just watching those very experienced guys just fly away from me. It was just unreal,” Rousseau said.
“Everyone else would have three to four times as much experience as me so I’m really proud of myself and where I’ve come from and what I’ve done.”
Daley, who was hoping for another gold after winning the men’s 10m platform synchronised event, claimed bronze. China’s Yan Cao and Jian Yang won silver and gold.
The lack of international competitions in the lead up to the Games meant Rousseau went in as an underdog.
Rousseau’s best dive - a forward four-and-a-half somersaults tucked - scored 88.80 points.
Rousseau has now set his sights on a medal in Paris.
It would have special meaning as his grandfather Michel Rousseau won a gold cycling medal for France at the 1956 Games.
“My granddad came from France to Australia for his gold medal so let’s see what I can do,” he said.
Former Aussie acrobat matches world’s best divers
By Erin Smith and Brianna Travers
Four years ago Cassiel Rousseau had never even stepped foot on a diving board, in fact he was terrified of heights - now he is through to the semi-final in the men’s 10m platform at his debut Olympics.
With such a short time in the sport and limited international competitions, the 20-year-old Queenslander went into the Tokyo Games as a bit of an underdog.
But all eyes will be on him after he sprung himself into the semi-final, along with some of the biggest names in men’s diving, including Great Britain’s Thomas Daley and China’s Jian Yang. Rousseau amassed 423.55 points to qualify in eighth place.
Sydney’s Sam Fricker, 19, missed out on spot in the semi-final, finishing the preliminary round in 28th place.
Rousseau started well earning 68.80 points on his first dive, an inward three-and-half somersaults tucked to shoot into 11th place.
The Queenslander dropped to 17th after his second dive but clawed back to inside the top 10 after executing two spectacular dives, scoring 72.6 and 76.5 points.
With just one dive to go he was in 9th place.
Rousseau saved his best dive until last earning 83.25 points off a forward four-and-a-half somersaults, a dive with a difficulty rating of 3.7 - cementing his spot in the semi-final.
He isn’t getting too far ahead of himself and hasn’t even stopped to process that he just competed at his first Olympics.
“I’m kind of just thinking about what I have to do moving on to the semi finals. I’ll just think about all the Olympic stuff after that,” Rousseau said.
Before taking up diving Rousseau was an accomplished acrobatic gymnast, training with Robertson Gymnastics. He won national titles, finished eighth in the 2016 Acrobatic World Championships and sixth in the World Games in 2017.
It was this international experience that helped keep the nerves at bay.
“I don’t really get nervous during competitions,” Rousseau said.
“I’ve been on the international stage quite a lot of times, with acrobatics and obviously performing in front of a lot of people definitely helped.”
He switched to diving after watching his sisters at a come and try day.
“I hated heights. I honestly don’t know how I jumped off the board for the first time. I just stood up there going ‘I’m not doing this’, but once you start rotating in the air you get used to it,” Rousseau said.
“The fear disappeared, it was just all enjoyment.”
Rousseau proved to be a natural, winning first in the 3m springboard and second in the 1m springboard at his first junior national competition, just months after taking up the sport.
He made his international debut at 18 at Calgary, competing in three events and finished fourth in the men’s 3m synchronised springboard with Matthew Carter.
At the FINA World Championships in 2019, he finished ninth in the men’s 10m platform.
Rousseau said it wasn’t the flips, tumbles and handstands he found the hardest to master.
“The hardest part was learning to pretty much land on your head, instead of your feet,” he said.
Fricker said he was disappointed with his dives and had hoped to get a better outcome from his first Olympics.
“I’m so excited and proud to be here and it has always been a dream to dive at the Olympics,” Fricker said.
“I feel like a lot of the hard work didn’t really shine through and it just wasn’t my day today but that’s okay, that is what this sport is.”
The 19-year-old said he planned to go back to the pool and work even harder setting his sights on the Commonwealth Games next year and Paris 2024.
Rousseau will dive again on Saturday in the semi-final at 11am. The top 12 will progress to the final at 4pm.
Aussie pocket rocket still turning heads after all these years
Aside from the camera shutters madly clicking - it is silent - everyone is holding their breath as Melissa Wu lines up for her last dive - an Olympic medal is on the line - but she doesn’t even know it.
Wu leaps from the platform and pulls off her best dive of the day scoring 81.60.
She had to wait nervously for the last two competitors to dive.
They failed to match her impressive result - a smile spread from ear to ear as Wu realised she had won a bronze medal.
She hadn’t looked at the scoreboard until that moment and had no idea that going into the final dive just six points separated her from fourth place.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my long career, it’s the more I get hung up on the scoreboard, the worse it gets for me, so I just try to stay in my little bubble and that’s something I’ve had to work the hardest on,” she said.
“In a competition it is about being able to control your breathing the whole time.”
Wu, 29, has been on the Australian diving team since 2006, when aged just 13 she won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games.
She backed it up two years later finishing second in the 10m platform synchronised event in Beijing.
Wu finished fourth and fifth in her solo dives in London and Rio respectively.
She shared the podium in Tokyo with two teen Chinese divers- aged just 14 and 15.
Three out of 14-year-old Hongchan Quan’s five dives were marked as perfect by all five judges.
Each time she just slipped into the water, leaving just a ripple in her wake.
As the supporters in the stands waited for Quan’s final score, from her back two-half-somersaults one-half-twists, to be announced they started chanting, 10, 10, 10, 10 - and the judges agreed.
There was a massive round of applause from all competitors and supporters as the scores flashed up on the board.
She finished in first with a massive 466.20 points - 40 points ahead of her teammate Yuxi Chen, 15.
“I think they’re amazing. There are so many incredible divers in China and growing up I always looked up to them and just to be able to dive like that would be amazing,” Wu said.
“But I’m so glad to be able to share the podium and share the competition not only with them but with so many amazing divers from around the world as well.”
The bronze medal, which Wu said would double as a birthday present for her mum, is her first individual Olympic medal.
She is the first Australian woman to win an individual Olympic diving medal since 2004 but that isn’t why it means so much.
“This medal is very important to me, my grandmother (Maisie Wu), who I was very close to passed away a couple of months ago and so she didn’t get to see me win it,” a tearful Wu shared at the press conference.
“And that would have been very important to her.”
Wu almost gave the sport away in 2014 after her sister Kirsten, a champion weightlifter, took her own life.
“It was a huge challenge for me to overcome and something that is continually very challenging for me and my family.
“I’ve had quite a few challenges injury wise and also with my mindset.
“It has taken a really long time to be able to master that.”
Australia has won a diving medal at every Games since Sydney and Wu has helped keep the tradition alive.
The oldest competitor in the pool, Wu said she hadn’t yet decided if she would be back for Paris.
If she isn’t, one of her students could be.
Wu is coaching the young elite divers at the New South Wales Institute of Sport.
Olympic debutant’s Sam Fricker and Cassiel Rousseau will compete in the 10m men’s platform qualifying event on Friday.
Inspiring story behind Aussie star who refused to give up
Australia’s oldest diving debutante got an Olympic tattoo as a reminder to never give up on his dream, close to a decade before qualifying for the Games.
Shixin Li, 33, will compete in the men’s individual 3m spring event in Tokyo — 26 years after he started the sport as a child in China.
Upon retirement from competition in 2014, the two-time world champion branded his arm with a tattoo of the Olympic rings to remain inspired.
Soon after Li was poached to become an Australian diving coach, which led him to resettle in Bundoora and become a proud citizen.
While mastering English as a second language, Li would forgo traditional verbal coaching methods, often opting to demonstrate complicated dives with somersaults and twists.
His form remained strong and was encouraged by another coach to give competition another crack.
He is one of seven Australian divers to be competing in Tokyo.
“Never mind the age, if you have a goal, work hard to achieve it,” Li said.
“My first time at the diving pool in China, I dreamt one day I could compete in the Olympics. It was very exciting when I qualified, but I was only happy for 10 minutes and then I came down and started training.”
Li broke a bone in his neck in February and was told by doctors to take six weeks off, an order he disobeyed.
“I did a somersault on dry land while training and I fell on my face,” he said.
“Every single dive is very hard, very painful.
“But I have a dream and I am very hungry for it. It pushes me to overcome the pain and keep going. I must dive at the Olympic pool.”
Training in Adelaide has meant the father-of-three has been away from his wife and eldest daughter for the last two months.
It is an added strain considering his almost-three-year-old female twins are living in China with relatives due to harsh border controls.
“My daughter is always asking, Dad, when are you back, I am missing you so much,” he said.
With his eyes firmly on gold, Li is teaching himself the Australian national anthem.
“I can’t sing it 100 per cent right, but I hope in the future I can,” he said.
“That is one of my goals. I hope to win gold.”
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Originally published as Tokyo Olympics 2021: Aussie diver Cassiel Rousseau has potential to be a diving superstar
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