Coach Mitch Geller proud of small but mighty Canadian diving team in Paris

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This article was published 11/08/2024 (392 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PARIS – Canada continued its streak of Olympic diving success in Paris, winning at least one medal for an eighth consecutive Games.

The Olympics began well for Canadian divers after Nathan Zsombor-Murray of Pointe-Claire, Que., and Saskatoon’s Rylan Wiens won bronze in the men’s 10-metre synchronized event on July 29.

It was Canada’s first medal in the men’s platform, and its first men’s diving medal since Alexandre Despatie won silver in the three-metre springboard at the Beijing Games in 2008.

But unfortunately for the Canadian team, the medal haul stopped there. Canada settled for just one diving medal for the second consecutive Olympics.

Calgary’s Caeli McKay and Ottawa’s Kate Miller finished just over five points shy of the podium in the women’s 10-metre synchro. McKay also placed fourth in the individual event.

Margo Erlam was eliminated in the preliminary rounds of the women’s three-meter springboard, while Zsombor-Murray and Wiens each achieved a top-10 finish in the individual 10-metre event but fell short of another medal.

“It’s a small team, but a mighty team, and they proved that to be the case,” said Diving Canada’s chief technical director Mitch Geller. “Highly focused, highly committed. And yeah, there was disappointment. We could have been on the podium in the women’s 10-metre synchro, didn’t quite convert there.

“To be in the positions that we were in, and to have such a strong overall showing even with the limited team size, we’re pretty proud of what we’ve done.”

Geller said setbacks at the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar this winter had an impact in Paris.

Some subpar performances limited Canada’s number of entries in certain events and completely excluded the team from the three-metre synchro, where divers Pamela Ware and Mia Vallée could have been medal contenders in Paris.

“Sport is an exercise in expect the unexpected and having to deal with it, having to pivot, refocus and optimize at every opportunity,” he said. “When we walked away from the worlds, and we knew that yeah, there was one less dart to throw at the board, as far as medal potential events go. That’s just something we had to swallow, look forward and figure out how to optimize every opportunity we had.

“We came darn close, a number of times.”

China dominated diving once again in Paris. After winning seven out of eight possible gold medals at the Tokyo Games in 2021, Chinese divers went 8 for 8 in the French capital.

Geller said the focus in China is on Olympic performance, sometimes at the expense of other aspects of life such as education.

He also wonders how much Canada is willing to invest and sacrifice to succeed in Olympic diving.

“How much can you ask of an 8-year-old in Canada? If we could put them in training six to eight hours a day, then yeah, for sure we would see a higher level of production,” he said. “Our challenge is to optimize performance given the constraint that we face, and I think we’ve done an exceptional job in doing so.

“Right now, we’re eclipsed, the whole world is eclipsed by what (China is) willing to put into it, compared to what it is we can possibly invest into it.”

Despite China’s dominance and the size of the Canadian team at the Paris Games, Geller remains optimistic for the future.

Zsombor-Murray expressed hope that his bronze medal would serve as inspiration for the next generation, to whom he hopes to pass the torch one day.

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Geller also believes it will have an impact when the team returns to Canada.

“It’s a little bit like what happened when Alex Despatie broke through. The first thing is to believe in what you’re capable of doing, and to change people’s perspectives from the goal of getting to the Olympics to the goal of coming home with a medal,” he said. “I think that we reinforced that time and time again here.

“This is shaping up to be a very strong upcoming quadrennial, and I think (younger divers back home) saw the events and what we’re capable of doing. When you see your peers standing up to the very best in the world several times over, it reinforces the belief that we’re capable of doing some great things.”

The next chapter takes place at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2024.