Courtesy: Aquatics GB
A group of 26 divers will look to build on a historic year for Aquatics GB diving after being invited on to the World Class Programme for 2025.
A clean sweep of synchro medals at last summer’s Olympic Games, plus a stunning final-day bronze for Noah Williams in the Men’s 10m Platform, secured Britain a best-ever medal return at an Olympics, five months on from another record-breaking haul of seven at the February 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha.
Seven of those Paris Olympic medallists – including four-time Olympian Jack Laugher, world champion Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and 3m synchro pair Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen, who started the Team GB medal rush last July – are among the 11 athletes as part of the Podium tier for this season, which will culminate at the World Championships in Singapore across July and August. Jordan Houlden‘s fifth-place finish in the Men’s 3m Springboard final in Paris also sees him move up from Podium Potential.
The 2025 Podium Potential tier, meanwhile, features Maisie Bond and Hannah Newbrook, who secured medals at November’s World Junior Championships in Rio de Janeiro, as well as reigning European champions Desharne Bent-Ashmeil, Amy Rollinson and Robbie Lee, among others.
Athletes on either Podium or Podium Potential programme tiers receive opportunities and targeted financial assistance from UK Sport through the World Class Performance Programme’s Athlete Performance Award (APA), as well as benefiting from programme opportunities and targeted support from Aquatics GB and UK Sport, including key competition opportunities and training camp experiences throughout the season, as well as access to comprehensive support from the world-leading Aquatics GB performance and sports science and sports medicine staff.
With World Aquatics Diving World Cup contests and a senior and junior European Diving Championships on the horizon before the benchmark senior event of the Singapore World Championships to round out another busy season, Matt Ashman, Aquatics GB lead for diving, knows there are plenty of opportunities for this exciting group to make their mark over the coming months.
“Our Aquatics GB diving programme enjoyed immense success on the world’s biggest stages in 2024, and that gives our athletes and staff great momentum to carry on into the start of the new Olympic cycle and some valuable, top-level competition opportunities coming up, which will give them the chance to compete against the best athletes from across the globe and to test their arena skills in those environments,” he said.
“Off the back of such success in Paris, some of our top athletes have had differing lengths of break to refresh and reset, which are fully deserved and will benefit them in the long run. It means we are excited to see both how those divers come back in after those breaks, and also how the next generation of diving talent can progress and step up over the coming months. That goes for the junior divers contesting next month’s Elite Junior Diving Championships, and then those looking to make a senior mark at the Aquatics GB Diving Championships, with eyes on major senior international representation this year.
“We are also encouraged by the successful transition made in Sheffield, which is due to become an Aquatics GB Performance Centre in the coming weeks alongside our existing programme in London. There is a strong group of athletes there who have already made a huge impact over recent seasons and who we know will continue to drive each other on to the next level.”
Divers invited on to the 2025 Aquatics GB World Class Programme
* Titles of Aquatics GB Performance Centres are shortened to ‘Performance Centre’ in this list
Podium
- Anthony Harding, Sheffield Performance Centre (England)
- Yasmin Harper, Sheffield Performance Centre (England)
- Ross Haslam, Sheffield Performance Centre (England)
- Jordan Houlden, Sheffield Performance Centre (England)
- Kyle Kothari, London Performance Centre (England)
- Jack Laugher, Sheffield Performance Centre (England)
- Scarlett Mew Jensen, London Performance Centre (England)
- Grace Reid, London Performance Centre (Scotland)
- Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, London Performance Centre (England)
- Lois Toulson, Sheffield Performance Centre (England)
- Noah Williams, London Performance Centre (England)
Podium Potential
- Leon Baker, Sheffield Performance Centre (England)
- Desharne Bent-Ashmeil, London Performance Centre (England)
- Maisie Bond, Sheffield Performance Centre (England)
- Tilly Brown, Sheffield Performance Centre (England)
- Ben Cutmore, London Performance Centre (England)
- Jorden Fisher-Eames, London Performance Centre (England)
- Oliver Heath, Plymouth Diving Club (England)
- Juliette John, London Performance Centre (England)
- Oscar Kane, London Performance Centre (England)
- Robbie Lee, London Performance Centre (England)
- Euan McCabe, Plymouth Diving Club (England)
- Hannah Newbrook, London Performance Centre (England)
- Noah Penman, Aberdeen Diving Club (Scotland)
- Amy Rollinson, London Performance Centre (England)
- Evie Smith, London Performance Centre (England)
