Diving veteran Melissa Wu defies odds and locks in her ticket to fifth Games after injury struggles
Diving legend Melissa Wu has qualified for her fifth Olympic Games, overcoming both injury and the next generation of talent to lock in her ticket to Paris.
Diving
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Australian diving queen Melissa Wu is on her way to a fifth Olympic Games after a fairytale return from injury at the national championships.
Wu, 32, kept her nerves at bay to overcome younger rivals in her pet individual 10m platform event in Adelaide on Saturday night.
The competition came down to the final dives following a stunning last-round effort from up-and-coming star Ellie Cole.
Wu, who won bronze in Tokyo, said she was relieved at the result following a challenging three years.
A back injury had forced her to return to synchronised diving before she returned to individual competition earlier this year.
“It’s always stressful coming into Olympic trials and this year hasn’t been the best prep for me,” she said.
“We were overseas earlier in the year to try and get the quota spots, it definitely wasn’t my best performance and I didn’t travel again after that.
“I managed to cram in some prep at the last minute but definitely had to draw on a lot of experience coming into this comp to get me through.”
She said it was an “amazing feeling” to be headed to a fifth Olympics, after finishing with a final score of 966.40.
“I think the more time goes on the more you appreciate it and the harder it is as well,” she said.
“You get older and training is different to what it is when you’re younger and you can’t do the same amount of volume.
“There’s days when it’s really tough to manage everything but moments like this make it all worth it.”
Wu said her medal-winning performance in Tokyo had lifted a weight from her shoulders heading into Paris.
“I think now, late in my career, it’s not about proving things to anybody,” she said.
“It’s just me continuing to challenge myself and push myself and I’ll do the same thing going forward.”
Cole, 17, took second with 941.40 ahead of Tasmanian Emily Meaney, who finished fifth at the Commonwealth Games.
Meaney’s final score was 918.55, while Nikita Hains, who finished 21st at the Tokyo Games, finished in 7th position with 821.20.
There is just one definite spot available for Australia’s women’s 10m platform divers after they failed to qualify a quota spot in the synchronised event.
However, Cole could also be on her way to Paris with the possibility that a second spot will be handed to Australia.
The Olympic diving team will be officially announced by the Australian Olympic Committee shortly.
Four-time Olympian Melissa Wu will take on next generation of talent to secure her ticket to Paris
With just one spot on the line and a number of rising stars in top form Melissa Wu will have to be near perfect if she wishes to qualify for her fifth Olympics at this week’s trials.
The trials have a very different meaning for men’s 10m platform synchronised diver Domonic Bedggood – for him it is a shot at redemption after withdrawing from the 2020 trials due to mental health struggles.
Wu, who won bronze in the women’s 10m platform at the Tokyo Games, has had a rough three years – including a back injury that forced her to return to competing as a synchronised diver.
Wu, 32, will have no option but to put on a near perfect performance in Adelaide this week with a number of young divers itching for their shot on the world’s biggest stage. Nikita Hains, who finished 21st in Tokyo is determined to make a second Games.
Emily Meaney, who finished fifth at the Commonwealth Games, Laura Hingston who narrowly missed out on qualifying for Worlds and 17-year-old Ellie Cole who just won two gold medals at the American Cup are also contenders.
Bedggood, who partners with world champion Cassiel Rousseau, said he has no doubt he wouldn’t be still diving if he hadn’t withdrawn from the Tokyo trials.
At the time it was a tough decision – he had spent five years training and preparing for the delayed Games.
“Tokyo was obviously a tough one to make the decision to pull out just before trials but with all the things going on around me at the time and in my personal life, it was really difficult to focus my attention on sports, it was causing a lot of hurt at the time,” Bedggood said.
“I look back now and thank myself, my family, friends and support team around me for helping me make that decision to step away from sports because I definitely think it gave me such a different perspective on diving as a whole.
“Hindsight is a hell of a thing but I feel if I had kept pushing through that might have been the end of my diving career.”
After taking the time to reset, Bedggood got back on the platform for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He finished with a bronze in the men’s 10m platform synchronised, alongside Rousseau.
Bedggood and Rousseau finished second in the 2023 Diving World Cup super final and
third in the Diving World Cup, held in Germany in March.
Now he has his focus set on competing, alongside Rousseau, at the Paris Olympics.
The first step will be qualifying at this week’s Olympic trials in Adelaide.
Off the back of a hectic season, most of which was spent abroad competing, the duo are in peak form for the trials.
“It’s been quite a chaotic season,” he said.
“We’ve been trying to really refine some competition routines on the international scene, it’s good it has come to an end and now we are able to just knuckle down and hash out any final details.”
The Diving Australia Olympic trials are in Adelaide from June 6-9.
Rousseau and Bedggood will compete on Thursday with the women’s 10m platform event scheduled for Saturday night.
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