Diving Canada – Canada’s Lysanne Richard returns from injury to place third at Red Bull Cliff Diving Series
MOSTAR, Bosnia and Herzegovinia – It takes a lot of courage to be a professional cliff diver and Lysanne Richard of Montreal is a prime example as she returned from a neck injury to win the bronze medal this weekend in the women’s 21-metre at the sixth stop on the Red Bull Series circuit.
Rhiannan Iffland of Australia remained undefeated this season as she won her sixth gold with 358.05 points to clinch the season title with one stop left. Eleanor Townsend Smart of the U.S. was second at 288.90 and Richard, who missed the FINA World Championships earlier this month due to the injury, followed at 284.70.
‘’Despite the circumstances, the event went very well for me,’’ said Richard, a 37-year-old mother of three. ‘’My first and fourth dives were solid but my two middle ones were below par.’’
In order to recover fully from injury, Richard has been limited to two dives per day in her recent training.
‘’It’s a big mental challenge,’’ said the 2016 World Cup champion. ‘’I tried to prepare myself as best as I could with a lot of visualisation and simulation.
In 2017, Richard missed the entire season due to a similar injury. It was important to thank her support group from her husband and children, to her sports team and her coach Stéphane Lapointe.
‘’It makes all the difference,’’she said. ‘’This medal represents the resilience and work of an entire team.’’
Iffland is first overall with 1,000 points followed by Jessica Macaulay of Britain at 540, Yana Nestsiarava of Belarus at 510 and Richard, who has three bronze and a silver this season, at 500.
The final event is September 14 in Bilbao, Spain.
Full results: https://cliffdiving.redbull.com/dk_INT/results