Montréal, March 23, 2024 – Saskatchewan’s Rylan Wiens shone brightly at the second stop of the Diving World Cup series, winning silver in the men’s 10m platform event in Berlin, Germany. It was his first individual medal in the current World Cup series.

“I’m really happy with my performance today [Saturday]. I came here to win a medal, and that’s exactly what I did. I’m very excited!” said the 22-year-old athlete, who finished sixth in the same event at the previous World Cup, in Montréal.

Wiens earned high scores from the judges on his very first attempt, moving into the provisional top three, where he remained throughout the six rounds of the competition. His final dive brought his total score to 494.50 points.

“I’m not going to lie. When I realized I had a chance to get onto the podium, I was really nervous. I stayed nervous until my final dive, where I was able to relax a bit when I saw the scoreboard. I stepped onto the platform and gave everything I had,” he said.

“All these competitions are serving as preparation for the Paris Olympics. I kind of see them as practice rounds, so that, once I get to Paris, I’ll know exactly what to do and how to perform each dive,” he added.

Junjie Lian of China won today’s event with a final score of 542.55. Cassiel Rousseau of Australia rounded out the podium, finishing behind the Canadian with 476.90 points.

In the same final, Nathan Zsombor-Murray finished eighth with 399.80 points.

McKay and Miller on the podium

In the women’s 10m synchronized event, Canadian duo Kate Miller and Caeli McKay won silver for the second time this season.

“It’s always great to win a medal, but I think we’re both a bit disappointed in our performance. It wasn’t as consistent or as precise as we would have liked. We still have a lot of work to do, but winning a medal is very motivating,” explained McKay, who also won silver with her teammate at the same location last August, in only their second competition together.

In provisional second place behind the Ukrainians after their first dive, McKay and Miller held onto their position until the fourth round, when they moved down to third place. They quickly recovered, however, earning 68.16 points on their final dive to bring their total to 282.72 points, simultaneously edging out Kseniia Bailo et Sofiia Lyskun of Ukraine, who finished third with a score of 276.36.

“We really believe we can win a medal in Paris. We’re getting more and more comfortable as a team and on the platform, so all the competitions we have leading up to Paris will bring us one step closer to the Olympic podium,” concluded McKay.

Americans Delaney Schnell and Jessica Parratto, who held provisional third place after their third synchronized dive, won the gold medal after executing three excellent dives that brought their total score to 306.00.

In the women’s 3m springboard final, Margo Erlam gave her all. Thanks to her consistency from start to finish, the 21-year-old Albertan finished 11th with 278.60 points, having provisionally occupied that spot in the standings throughout the competition.

Yiwen Chen of China, who was favoured to win, finished first with 356.40 points. Maddison Keeney of Australia (344.75) and Sarah Bacon of the USA (327.75) completed the podium.

The action will resume on Sunday. Nathan Zsombor-Murray and Rylan Wiens will take part in the men’s 10m synchronized event, while their teammates Caeli McKay and Elaena Dick compete in the women’s individual 10m final.

More information :

Alexandra Piché
Manager, Communications
Diving Canada
C: 514 625-5513
alexandra@diving.ca