Olympic gap year begins for diving star Spendolini-Sirieix

Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix insists she is done with pressure after completing her A-levels and wants to enjoy every second of a gap year bookended by the World Championships and Olympic Games. It has been an exhausting period for the double European gold-medal winning Londoner with the British Diving Championships sandwiched in the middle of her English Literature, History and Spanish exams. Ad Next on the agenda is the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, and while she finished a disappointing 19th in the individual 10m platform event a year ago, Spendolini-Sirieix believes she has learned a lot from the experience.

DivingKothari ready to prove the diving doubters wrong at World ChampionshipsAN HOUR AGO «I want to beat myself,» said the 18-year-old. «If I get a medal, that's incredible. I want to go there and beat my personal best.

»Pressure is the destroyer of competitions. Sometimes internal pressure is worse than external pressure because your mind goes crazy. «I've learnt from last year going to worlds which is do not put pressure on yourself as it does bad things to you.» The Japan showpiece, which begins on July 14, offers an unnamed qualifying spot for Paris 2024 — which holds added significance for Spendolini-Sirieix, whose father and TV star Fred grew up a few hours outside the capital in Limoges.

To aid her quest for a Paris place, Spendolini-Sirieix will be drawing upon on what she learnt during a stunning 2022 which saw her become a Commonwealth and European champion. «Last year was really lovely,» she recalled. «It was so nice to find confidence again especially after feeling knocked down.