Dive meet a springboard to success Pan Am Pool hosting Winter Senior National Championships this weekend By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 5:27 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023

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Three of Manitoba’s best will try to make a splash — or as little a splash as possible — when the top divers in the country gather in Winnipeg this weekend.

Attila Bernatsky, Zita Bernatsky and Leia Berman will flip, twirl and plunge into Pan Am Pool at the Winter Senior National Championships, beginning Friday and wrapping up Sunday.

Fifty divers from six provinces will compete in six categories — the men’s and women’s one-metre and three-metre springboard and the 10-metre platform — with spots on the Canadian senior diving team potentially on the line.

With the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics drawing closer, a good showing this weekend is critical for world-stage hopefuls and could qualify athletes for other international competitions this winter, including the World Aquatics world championships, which take place in Doha, Qatar, in February.

Manitoba’s representatives are young in comparison to the rest of the field, which features six athletes who dove for Canada at the Tokyo Olympics (2021) and a former world champion. So, while they’ve prepared to make their mark this weekend, the championships will likely serve as a springboard for future success.

“I think it’s a great learning opportunity,” said Attila, 18, who is committed to the University of Utah’s swim and dive program. “This is one of the bigger events for me and I’m super excited to compete against all these divers.” Attila specializes in the 10m platform dives.

“I feel like I’m always chasing myself, so (I) just (want to) improve each year, try to get better. Scores, to me, are more important than placing.”

It’s Attila’s third senior national event, but it’s the first time he’ll compete alongside his sister Zita, who makes her national debut.

“Being able to have this experience and share (it) with my brother is super exciting.”–Zita Bernatsky

“Being able to have this experience and share (it) with my brother is super exciting,” said Zita, 16. “In the pool, we’re really supportive of each other and we’re super close at the pool and at home so we’re great teammates to each other and having his support in this… it’s a stressful event, especially the first time doing it.

“I’m going to be a bit nervous coming into the event but having his support there and having someone I’m super close with is definitely gonna be great.”

Perhaps no one in the field is currently flying higher than Zita, who is fresh off a gold medal at the first Canamex High Diving Challenge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., earlier this month. She amassed 278.3 points over four dives at the event to finish ahead of U.S. athlete Maya Kelly (257.85) and Ontario’s Megan Lupa (247.45).

“Winning the gold and performing the way I did, it definitely gives you more motivation and everything just to really do my best, really go for what I want on each and every dive,” said Zita, who is committed to the University of Iowa.

“And there is still quite a bit of correlation between regular diving and the high diving so it’s not like I feel out of (place) or anything. I was still able to work on the flips and work on the takeoffs and stuff while I was doing the high diving. So, I’m just excited to come here and see what I can do.”

It’s Berman’s second senior national event. A serious back injury kept her out of last year’s competition and sidelined her for three months. Though it’s been nearly two years since she last competed, Berman, 17, said she’s still able to draw on her experience heading into this weekend.

“I’m excited to compete because I love competition. I’m definitely a bit nervous, seeing all these good divers, but I’m still feeling good about it because having seniors last time I’ve already experienced it once,” said Berman, who is committed to the University of Illinois. She will dive from the one-metre springboard this week.

“There were a lot of technical things I noticed (in 2022)… in the divers who are more experienced. Then I also noticed in practice, whenever you see the Olympic divers online, you always see the perfect dives. When I was there I got to see that everybody makes mistakes too and just because you don’t have a good practice, doesn’t mean you can’t nail your competition — I saw a lot of that.”

“I’m definitely a bit nervous, seeing all these good divers, but I’m still feeling good about it because having seniors last time I’ve already experienced it once.”–Leia Berman

Indeed, head coach Dallas Ludwick has preached the importance of being mentally resilient to each of her students in the lead-up to the big event. Ludwick, who heads Revolution Diving, the Winnipeg-based diving institute, dove in the senior national event when she was at the top of her game.

“What’s exciting about hosting the senior nationals is that (they) get to come in and train alongside all their heroes — all the Olympians, all the national team members, all the people they see on TV — and see that they’re human too,” Ludwick said.

“The first time, it’s really intimidating because you’ve been watching these folks for a long time and you’ve admired them and looked up to them and always put them in this different echelon of divers. And then you get there and usually you have moments during the week where you feel like you don’t belong. So that’s one of the first things you need to get over is, you qualified, you made the points, you belong here fair and square just along with everybody else.”

Admission is free for the championships, which are being live-streamed by CBC Sports.

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

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