Kaitlin Balasaygun - (Author)

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor. We're several weeks into the college academic calendar, which for many swimming and diving programs means practice has started in full force. For student-athletes, particularly freshman, adjusting to the rigors of college athletics and academics can be a ...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor. USA Diving's High Performance Squad is made up of divers who exhibit the most potential, skill, and determination to become future U.S. Olympic Team Members. The squad is categorized into three tiers. Tier One includes the Nations' most accomplished diver...

"I was thrown into the deep end," joked Rhiannan Iffland about the beginning of her cliff diving career. The 27 year old from New Castle, Australia dove in her first cliff diving competition in 2016. She came in last place by over one hundred points. Since then, Iffland has competed in 17 Red Bull c...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor. Men's 27-meter, the final diving event of the 18th FINA World Championships, took place this morning, July 24, 2019, in Gwangju, South Korea. In a thrilling finish, British diver Gary Hunt overtook American Steve LoBue in the fourth and final round. It wa...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor.  Rhiannan Iffland, the most decorated woman in high diving history, defended her world championship title this morning, July 23, 2019 in an extremely close competition. Despite her accolades, the Australian diver did not command the competition like one m...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor. Today, on the eighth and final day of springboard and platform diving, mixed three-meter synchro and men's ten-meter platform concluded the diving competition at the 2019 FINA World Championships. Mixed synchro, a non-Olympic event where teams are made up...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor  On the seventh day at the FINA World Championships in the women's three-meter final event, the top 5 divers stayed in the same position they started in for the whole competition. All the top spots were filled with consistent, veteran divers. Shi Tingmao, ...

China secured the top two spots in the three-meter diving event during an exciting final round on the sixth day of the World Championships. The Chinese women accomplished the same feat yesterday. Men's three-meter was the only event today, and Xie Siyi took home the gold medal. Xie entered finals ti...

China's young platform divers swept the top of the podium on the fifth day of diving competition at the World Championships, and the American women's medal drought in Olympic events is officially over. Women's 10-meter was the only final event to take place today, the fifth day of competition. Chen ...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor. Only one finals event took place on day five of the FINA World Championships: the mixed three-meter and ten-meter. The Chinese team, made up of Lin Shan and Yang Jian won by 26.6 points. The team competed a back dive pike (201B), a reverse two-and-a-half ...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor. China added two golds to their collection in today's diving events. The day four final events started with women's synchronized three-meter. The winning team from China, made up of Shi Tingmao and Wang Han, put on a show for the judges and the world. The ...

Men's one-meter springboard and women's synchronized ten-meter wrapped up last night in Gwangju at the FINA World Championships. The Chinese team earned two golds and a bronze medal on day three alone. Yang Zongyuan won one of China's gold medals. He started finals in third place, before soon droppi...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor.  Diving has officially started at the 2019 FINA Diving World Championships with women's one-meter, men's synchronized three-meter, and mixed synchronized ten-meter platform. Mixed synchronized 10m was the first final event to finish. The Chinese team, mad...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor  Sunday, May 26, 2019 was the final day of a big week in diving. USA Diving's Senior National Championship wrapped up along with the FINA High Diving World Cup and the last leg of the FINA Diving World Series. The FINA Diving World Series wrapped up on May...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor. There are plenty of stereotypes and in any sport. But as a sport that many people don't understand, or can't relate to, diving has a lot of them. Here are five myths about diving, debunked. 1. Divers aren't afraid of heights. Many divers are afraid of hei...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Magazine Contributor  As the 2019 NCAA competition ends, many of Team USA's elite divers have their sights set on the next big thing-- the 2020 Summer Olympics. Steele Johnson's recent announcement that he will forgo his last year of NCAA eligibility in exchange for a...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Magazine Contributor.  As a 22 year old, entering my senior diving season, I knew my diving career was coming to a close. Now that my conference meet is over, it's time to say goodbye to a sport thats's been such a big part of my life for the last decade. [caption id=...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor The Big East Conference Championships took place at the Nassau County Aquatic Center in East Meadow, New York from February 20 to 23, 2019. Villanova's divers won all the diving events, contributing to the Villanova women's sweep of every single individual...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor Each year, USA Diving releases a high performance squad list, naming the nation's most talented and promising divers. The list is made up of three tiers. The third tier is all junior divers. Some of the divers on this list are taking their talents to colle...

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World Contributor. As 2018 comes to a close, its time to reflect on everything that happened this over the course of the year. Here are Swimming World's top five diving moments of 2018. #5) 14 year old Zhang Jiaqi's performance in FINA World Cup Zhang dove in her first FINA...