‘It is a lot harder than what you see, I guess it’s like being a ballerina’

Australia’s great Olympic diving gold medal hope Cassiel Rousseau opens up on the quiet pain of his beautiful sport.

Cassiel Rousseau of Australia competes in the men's 10m platform final during the World Aquatics Diving World Cup in Berlin, Germany. Picture: Maja Hitij/Getty Images

There is a quiet brutality to diving, explains Olympic gold medal hope Cassiel Rousseau. He says it’s kind of like ballet. It’s a sport that looks incredibly beautiful but there is a toughness to the discipline those watching the final performance never see.

“It is a lot harder than what you see, I guess it’s like being a ballerina,” Rousseau said. “It’s incredibly hard on the body.”

Some Olympic divers enter the water at around 50 km an hour. Headfirst. No wonder the sport’s elite athletes sometimes suffer bruises, busted eardrums, broken wrists, in Rousseau’s case recently, a concussion.

Around six months ago he suffered a concussion which kept him out of the pool. He sustained the injury due to the impact of his head hitting the water during training when he was practicing on the 10m platform.

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“I’m very good in terms of my aerial awareness, so I haven’t had too many, dives that went wrong but I did have a concussion over six months ago, just the impact from the water – especially from 10 metres, like, the impact is really hard,” Rousseau said.

While Rousseau said he had a headache as soon as he sustained that concussion, and spent time out of the pool recovering, the 23-year-old says he is feeling completely fine now, and ready to go, in his second Olympic campaign.

Having secured Australia’ two quota positions in diving for the upcoming Olympics, he will compete in the 10m platform and the synchronised event. Australia’s Matthew Mitcham was the last and is only Australian man to have won gold in the 10m event, back at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Rousseau’s build up to these Olympics has shown that this time he is a man to beat at the Games to be held in Paris this July.

At last year’s world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Rousseau made history as the first Australian to win the 10m men’s crown. It was a performance full of grit and fightback. He was only ranked ninth after his first dive but a string of strong dives saw him build up to finally take the lead after his penultimate fifth dive.

Rousseau thrived under pressure on his final dive – he nailed a forward 4½ somersault tuck and scored 98.05 points to become world champion.

It was one of the reasons World Aquatics bestowed him the honour of ‘male diver of the year’ for 2023.

Gold medallist Cassiel Rousseau during the medal ceremony at the Fukuoka 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Japan. Picture: Adam Pretty/Getty Images

But Rousseau, who grew up in Queensland and was once a gymnast who represented Australia in acrobatic gymnastics at several international events before switching to diving in 2017, is very “chill” about it all.

Five years into his career as a diver, he is not feeling the pressure.

“I just take it as it comes,” Rousseau said. “And if I do well, I do well. If I don’t do well, I don’t do well. That’s pretty much it.”

When asked about what would be a successful Paris Olympic campaign to him – he finished eighth in his first Games in Tokyo – he says it is not about the medals.

“I mean, like, for me, with any comps that I do, I’m not really searching to get a medal,” he said.

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“I just enjoy the experience and enjoy competing, because I’m a really big competitor. So if I come away from the comp both a) happy about my performance, and b) having the opportunity to experience a lot, that will be a successful Olympics for me.”

He is following the path of his grandfather to the Olympics. His grandfather, Michel Rousseau, was a track cyclist, a man who delivered one of France’s four gold medals at the 1956 Melbourne Games. He has been reading his biography of late.

“Growing up, I knew that he was a sporting legend,” he said.

“It’s only since switching to an Olympic sport and then actually finally being able to have a shot at the Olympics which has encouraged me to do a lot more research on him and. I read a biography on him. What I have to go through has been very similar to his Olympic path. So it’s been really inspiring.”

Cassiel Rousseau contests the 10m platform final at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup in Montreal, Canada. Picture: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Most recently, Rousseau claimed a bronze medal in the men’s 10m platform at the Diving World Cup 2024 Berlin. This weekend he heads to China to compete in a World Cup meet next week.

He credits his family and his coach Adrian Hinchliffe as the reasons why he has been doing so well of late. He also says he is doing well because he loves the sport – as well has having the perseverance to push through when the times get tough.

“It’s enjoyment, I guess,” he said. “Like pretty much anything in my life. I kind of just want to enjoy what I’m doing and enjoy who I hang around. So it’s [the sport is] really hard when I’m not enjoying the sport to kind of wake up at 5am – but that’s where you kind of have to have dedication and perseverance, to just push through those hard days.”