Aussie a high diving world champion

Rhiannan Iffland became the first ever high diver from Australia to win gold at a world championships in Budapest.

Australian Rhiannan Iffland silhouettes against the Hungarian Parliament

Rhiannan Iffland became the first high diver from Australia to win gold at a world championships in Budapest yesterday.

The 25-year-old also became the youngest ever world champion in the event, as well as the first non-American champion.

Iffland scored 320.70 points ahead of Mexico’s Adriana Jimenez (308.90), who finished fourth in 2015, and Yana Nestsiarava of Belarus (303.95), who matched her bronze from two years ago.

The spectacular diving tower, with a platform 20 metres above a temporary pool, was erected on the river Danube in the Hungarian capital opposite the parliament building.

“It’s been an amazing couple of days, getting up to that amazing platform, amazing facility that they put together for us,” Iffland said. High diving is a terrifying sport, even for those who have made it their life and they are a rare breed, this small group of women and men who have brought an X Games-like sense of danger and bravado to the aquatics championships (the men decided their winner overnight, off an even higher perch 27m above the water).

“It’s very intimidating standing up there, 20m up, just looking at your feet,” said Iffland. “It’s not easy and the fear’s always there. For myself, I’m always scared. There’s never a moment where I walk up to that platform and I’m feeling 100 per cent confident.”

For obvious safety reasons, high divers hit the water feet-first. Still, when you’re plunging from that height, going somewhere in the neighbourhood of 95kph, pain is inevitable.

“I mean, especially when you first start doing it, it hurts,” said US diver Ginger Huber. “I’m not going to lie. It hurts a lot. Even if you land correctly, it hurts a lot. But it’s strange. Your body can kind of adjust to it.”

Well, not to everything. She flashed a smile — revealing several chipped teeth. “It’s a very risky sport. The impact is very hard,” Huber said. “Sometimes you get punched and you can’t breathe for a while. It knocks the breath out of you. We all have chipped teeth. Some people wear mouth guards because of that. My dentist is like, ‘You just got back from a competition, right? We’ve got another little chip there.”’

Iffland nailed her final dive to claim the gold. But not one felt like a loser. They all survived to dive another day.

Agencies