FINA Awards 2021 Divers of the Year to Xie Siyi, Shi Tingmao

FINA, the international governing body for 6 aquatic disciplines, has handed out its 2021 best-of awards.

Presented at a gala on Friday evening at the Hilton Abu Dhabi Yas Island Hotel, in conjunction with the World Short Course Swimming Championships, 12 superlatives were handed out for best Male and Female athlete in each of the organization’s 6 disciplines.

The diving awards were headlined by Xie Siyi and Shi Tingmao, a pair of Chinese Olympic champions.

Siyi won gold in the 3-meter springboard and the 3-meter synchronized springboard at the Tokyo Olympics. This was his first ever career Olympic appearance. In the individual event, he set a new Olympic record with a score of 558.75. He also won the 3-meter synchronized springboard with partner Wang Zongyuan.

This is the second time Siyi has been honored by FINA, the first coming after his double-gold performance at the 2019 World Swimming Championships.

The awards mark the sixth time in a row Tingmao has received this honor. The Chinese World and Olympic champion was named Best Female Diver of the Year five times from 2015 to 2019: the awards were not handed out in 2020.

Tingmao is no stranger to gold medals, as she demonstrated this past summer in Tokyo. She won gold in both the 3-meter springboard and the 3-meter synchronized springboard events, adding to her impressive total of 17 golds spread across the Asian Games, World Championships, and Olympic Games.

Both recipients of the Best High Diver of the Year were first-time recipients. Cliff divers Owen Weymouth of Great Britain and Ellie Smart of the United States were honored. The pair participate in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series and are founders of The Clean Cliffs Project, an initiative to clean up plastic pollution and inspire action through cliff diving.

FINA did not hand out awards in 2020 after the Olympic Games were postponed because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The full list of awards can be seen below.

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