Spendolini-Sirieix showing no intentions of slowing down

Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix was a double Commonwealth and double European diving champion before even turning 18 — and she has no intention of slowing down any time soon. Despite having to juggle her education with being an elite athlete, 2022 marked a breakthrough year as she stole the show in Birmingham in front of a home crowd at the Commonwealths before backing it up in Rome a fortnight later. Ad Her efforts have been recognised as she was crowned National Lottery Awards 2022 Athlete of the Year after a public vote in which more than 11,000 people voted, beating the likes of runner Eilish McColgan and cyclist Laura Kenny.

DivingSpendolini-Sirieix still fighting teenage battles despite summer of success31 MINUTES AGO While initially, Spendolini-Sirieix was recognised as much for her famous father — TV star Fred Sirieix from Channel 4 show First Dates — she has very much stepped out of his shadow. And next on the agenda is a daring new dive which she hopes will allow her to take another step in her diving development. «I'm leading up to a new dive so I want to see how that goes,» said Spendolini-Sirieix, who turned 18 last month.

«I'm very, very excited. I've not done a new dive in a very long time. »It's a back 3 ½.

We're just trialling it out at the moment to see if it works. If it works, then I'll add it to the list, if it doesn't, I'm not going to pressure myself to do it. But It's just about taking baby steps and building up confidence, building up the lead-up and slowly going up to ten metres.