Team Canada divers aim high for Paris 2024
No one knows how to throw themselves headfirst after a dream quite like an Olympic diver. Team Canada will be represented by five such brave and accomplished athletes at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Caeli McKay will make her second Olympic appearance. The 24-year-old competed at Tokyo 2020 in the women’s 10m synchro. She will compete in both the women’s 10m individual and 10m synchro events at Paris 2024.
McKay knows a thing or two about resilience in pursuit of a goal. After suffering a serious ankle injury at the national trials in late June 2021, McKay elected to withdraw from the individual 10m event to focus her recovery and preparation on being ready for the synchro event. In her Olympic debut, she placed fourth alongside synchro partner Meaghan Benfeito.
In 2023, McKay won her first World Aquatics Championship medal – a bronze – in the individual 10m platform, before winning bronze at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games in the same event. She had won silver in the event at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games and bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
“This is a big step forward for me,” said McKay. “I missed the last Olympic trials because of an ankle injury. Over the last three years, I’ve worked really hard to get to this place, which I’ve been aiming for for almost 20 years. I’m really excited.”
McKay’s synchro partner in Paris will be Kate Miller, who will make her Olympic debut. Miller, who teamed up with McKay in 2023, made her World Aquatics Championship debut at age 18 and she placed eighth in 10m synchro with McKay. At the 2024 World Championships, McKay and Miller moved up two spots, placing sixth, which qualified them for Paris 2024. They won silver together at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup Super Final in both 2023 and 2024.
22-year-old Margo Erlam will also make her Olympic debut in Paris, competing in the women’s 3m individual. She had a breakout year in 2022 when she competed at her first World Aquatics Championships and the Commonwealth Games. After winning 3m synchro gold with Mia Vallée at the FINA Diving Grand Prix in her hometown of Calgary, they finished fifth at the worlds and won bronze at the Commonwealth Games. Erlam won the women’s 3m springboard at the 2024 Canadian Diving Trials in May with a series of excellent dives, securing Team Canada’s lone Olympic spot in the event.
Nathan Zsombor-Murray and Rylan Wiens, who were both members of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic team, will be in action in the men’s 10m individual and men’s 10m synchro events.
“The Olympics, I always say that it’s a marathon and not a sprint,” said Zsombor-Murray. “It’s going to be a month away from home. We will have to adapt to the pool as well as the schedule. I am going to have to control the energy and not give everything at the beginning. Everything is going to be new and exciting. I want to keep my reserve, keep my energy high and give everything I can during the competition.”
As a duo, they made history in 2022 when they became the first Canadians to ever win a medal in the men’s 10m synchro event at the World Aquatics Championships, diving to bronze in Budapest, Hungary. They went on to win silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games, and the 2024 World Aquatics Diving World Cup in Berlin, Germany.
Wiens and Zsombor-Murray have also enjoyed individual success on the international stage.
After missing the 2023 World Aquatics Championships while recovering from a back injury, Wiens placed fifth in the men’s 10m platform at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships. He followed up with a silver medal at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup in Berlin. Wiens previously won 10m platform silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Zsombor-Murray won 10m platform silver at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games following his seventh-place finish at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships. He finished fourth at the 2023 World Aquatics Diving World Cup Super Final.
Diving will take place July 27 to August 10 at the newly built Aquatics Centre.
Canada has won at least one diving medal at every Olympic Games since Atlanta 1996.
Team Canada Divers at Paris 2024:
Margo Erlam (Calgary, Alta.)
Caeli McKay (Calgary, Alta.)
Kate Miller (Ottawa, Ont.)
Rylan Wiens (Saskatoon, Sask.)
Nathan Zsombor-Murray (Pointe-Claire, Que.)