Paris Olympic Games will be Melissa Wu’s fifth after being named to Australian diving team

Melissa Wu will headline the largest Australian diving squad to head to an Olympic Games since 2012, while becoming the first Australian diver to make five Games.

Australia named its nine-strong squad that will compete in Paris at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre on Monday morning.

Wu, who will compete in the 10m platform alongside 17-year-old debutant Ellie Cole, heads a strong team featuring 2023 World Champion Cassiel Rousseau and 2016 bronze medal pairing Anabelle Smith and Maddison Keeney. 

“The Olympics is so special,” Wu told ABC Sport at the announcement.

“To be able to go to a fifth is an incredible thing that not many people get to do.”

Even Wu, who won a silver medal on debut in the 10m synchro with Briony Cole in Beijing, as well as a bronze in the individual in Tokyo, was far from a certainty to get on the plane.

“Going to nationals [where I earned my spot] was a little bit rough for me with some injury worries,” Wu said.

“I’ve been fairly injured the last few years but had a couple of substantial injuries leading in.

“I actually ended up with about four weeks of proper training … it was kind of quite down to the wire. 

“So for me, this trials, going in, was nerve wracking in that sense. 

“I knew I didn’t have the prep that I needed, not just in that bit, but the whole year basically.”

Melissa Wu suffered from injuries in the lead up to Nationals and the World Championships.(Getty Images: Xinhua/Xia Yifang)

Those injuries included a debilitating knee problem — Wu could not bend or straighten her knee a month out from trials — and a neck injury that required two cortisone injections in the lead up to the trials.

That is on top of the impact injury she suffered when competing on SAS Australia which led to a back problem.

It was that which led to a performance at the World Championships in February that Wu was unhappy with.

#Paris #Olympic #Games #Melissa #Wus #named #Australian #diving #team

Leave a Comment