Mia Vallée and Pamela Ware have been training together for the synchronized 3-meter event since Tuesday only. Three days later, they appeared in front of the media with a bronze medal around their necks after the first day of competition at the Diving World Cup in Montreal.
It was hot at the Olympic Stadium basin on Friday afternoon. The brave having presented themselves in long pants quickly regretted their choice. The sun’s rays streamed through the windows in the ceiling of the Olympic dome.
There were also a lot of Canadian supporters, especially those close to Mia Vallée, contributing favorably to the warming of this mecca of Canadian diving.
This competition was for Ware the opportunity to officially move on after his Olympic defeat in Tokyo in 2021. For Vallée, the new face of the discipline in the country, it was a first competition in the metropolis, ahead of the his, since 2015.
However, the two athletes were diving together for the first time in a competitive context. Ware, vice-world champion at this event in 2015 and Vallée, fifth at the Worlds in 2022, hoped to be able to set the tone for this festive weekend.
“Pam and I have been talking about this for a long time. We didn’t really know how it was going to go, because our techniques are completely different, but from the second take-off jump, we were perfectly synchronized,” explained Vallée after the medal ceremony.
Their demonstration was amazing. The more their program progressed, the more convincing they were.
On the first dive, I kinda missed my inverted jump. I hadn’t felt like myself for the past few months. I don’t want to disappoint Pam, but when I got out of the water she told me it was going to be ok, it would be better in the next one.
Mia Valley
His partner was not mistaken.
From the second jump, thanks to a good amplitude, they gained a rank by moving from sixth to fifth provisional place.
They eventually progressed to the temporary third rank. The Canadians were neck and neck with the Australians. The gap between the two nations was between two and three points. Between a medal around his neck and empty hands. Between a smile and a disappointment.
The support of “Team Mia” was lifesaving for the pair. Their coordination, their amplitude and their entry into the water were on point on the last dive. Their score of 72.90 was their best of the day. Moreover, their note improved with each of the five figures. That is to say how instantaneous their progress was.
Coming out of the water, the two divers remained stoic. The fans, however, knew that they had done what was necessary to climb on the podium. “It gave us chills coming out of the water,” Ware said.
It is thanks to these shouts and these encouragements that the two Canadians understood that they were guaranteed to obtain a medal. They did not look at the scoreboard once during the competition.
“I almost cried,” said Ware, still feverish. After the last dive, I kept shaker. I was so happy, I can’t describe it. »
They edged the Australians by just 0.84 points.
“In synchro, you have to have confidence in yourself, but having confidence in your partner is incredibly important. This medal proves that we are confident,” adds Vallée, while his supporters continued to encourage him, even in the area reserved for interviews.
Disappointment in men
Nathan Zsombor-Murray and Rylan Wiens had big ambitions in the synchronized 10m event. On the one hand, because they had won, somewhat by surprise, a bronze medal at the last world championships in Hungary. On the other hand, because they were diving at home.
PHOTO PETR DAVID JOSEK, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Canadian duo of Nathan Zsombor-Murray and Rylan Wiens couldn’t build on their momentum from last year after settling for seventh place in the 10-metre synchro event on Friday.
“I like to perform under pressure. It gives us energy,” Zsombor-Murray said after the competition.
Unfortunately, the young Canadian duo was unable to live up to expectations, finishing in seventh place with a score of 360.99, more than 40 points off the podium.
However, it had started well for the maple leaf divers. They succeeded in their two entry jumps, the simplest of their program. They were then among the contenders for the podium.
From the optional jumps, however, they looked bad. The fourth jump will have been fatal. It was the most complex of their six dives and they weren’t able to capitalize on their competition-high 3.7 difficulty coefficient.
After the fourth dive, we were a little disappointed, but it’s never over. Something happened, but we can’t really tell what it is.
Nathan Zsombor-Murray
The execution was there, but their entry into the water lacked delicacy. They were provisionally sixth, but with two jumps to go, the damage was done. The next jump was a disaster, as Wiens completely missed his landing. They slipped to eighth place.
Their last jump, well executed, allowed them to climb one place in the standings to finish the event in seventh place. “We don’t really have an excuse, it wasn’t our day,” Zsombor-Murray explained.
His teammate, for his part, was more direct: “We have to be able to perform in this kind of event and we failed. We have learned and we will kick our ass to come back stronger. »
In reality, the divers simply crumbled under the intensified pressure from the other duos, unable to recover.
China, Ukraine and Great Britain are on the podium.