Determined Clare Cryan still daring to believe in her Paris dream

When the Olympic Federation of Ireland looked to expand its Dare to Believe programme two years ago, they went for athletes who in their own words could “share their inspirational stories of resilience” and whose journey could help promote the wider values of sport.

Now being run in primary and secondary schools around Ireland, the programme also seeks to inspire the next generation of Irish Olympians, daring them to believe what is possible. Which is exactly why they went for athletes like Clare Cryan.

Her journey in diving has so far been one of enduring self-belief and leant hard on her resilience – and she’s also known for her often-daring somersaults and twists off the 3m springboard.

Cryan is among the 31 Olympic and Paralympic Ambassadors who, whether they’ve yet qualified for a Games or not, each have their own different story to tell. Only now comes the pivotal point in her journey and the chance to write another chapter in Irish Olympic diving history.

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Cryan is on the cusp of her last chance to qualify for the Games, the 30-year-old part of the 15-strong Irish team in Doha as the World Aquatics Championships get under way today, and continue through to Sunday week, February 18th.

One of three divers on the team, along with Ciara McGing and Jake Passmore, Cryan needs to make the 12-women final of the 3m springboard to be certain of her place in Paris, although there will likely be other places available on countback.

Los Angeles in 2028 is not beyond the realms of possibility. Cryan came close to Paris on her first opportunity, finishing 17th at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka last July, her five-dive semi-final score of 283.45 just eight points off a place in the final. Those top-12 women are already booked in for Paris.

“Making the semi-final is something I’ve known I’m capable of but never achieved,” Cryan said of that performance. “So that was really special. It was all about keeping consistent over the five dives. Which I did, and had great fun doing.”

Formerly known as the Fina World Championships, before rebranded as World Aquatics, the Doha event takes in six aquatic disciplines – swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo – and is the first to be staged in the Middle East.

In 2019, originally a year out from Tokyo before Covid-19 pushed those Games in 2021, Cryan made the final in her first World Championships, in Gwangju, South Korea, in the 1m springboard (a non-Olympic event), finishing 11th among 12 of the world’s very best.

Born in Sheffield and qualifying to compete for Ireland through a grandfather (from Roscommon) and a grandmother (of Sligo extraction) on her father’s side, Cryan had also moved to Dublin at that point, in 2017, to train at the National Aquatic Centre under Swim Ireland’s national diving coach, Damian Ball.

Also in 2019, she helped make some Irish diving history when winning a first-ever medal (bronze) in synchro-diving at the Canadian Grand Prix, alongside Oliver Dingley, who in 2016 became the first Irish man to qualify for the Olympic diving since Eddie Heron in London in 1948. Cryan also won silver in the Singapore Grand Prix in 2018 in the 3m springboard.

In the end Cryan lost out on Tokyo, where Tanya Watson became the first Irish woman to qualify for a diving event at the Olympics, competing in the 10m platform (she narrowly missed that final by three places).

Her journey might well have ended there, only Cryan wasn’t done yet, not after all she’d come through to get back into competitive diving, and the chance to become the first Irish woman to make the Olympic 3m springboard still beckoning.

She’d started out in diving at age nine, fondly recalling how her grandparents called her “the hooligan” as she would rush from one sport to the other: soccer, tennis, dancing, gymnastics. By age 22 however she was by her own admission burnt out; she wanted and needed something completely different, so she pursued a role as a professional performance diver for a cruise ship company in the Caribbean.

That break rekindled her competitive spirit, and she was soon back on the international diving circuit. Now based at Sheffield Diving Club and studying physiotherapy, her chance to qualify for Paris will depend firstly on making the final, the top-12 women guaranteed, and secondly on how many have qualified already (the top-12 from Fukuoka last year).

Each country can only qualify two divers per event; China for example already have their quota after Chen Yiwen and Chang Yani won gold and silver at last year’s World Championships, so Cryan could yet finish outside the top 12 and still make Paris.

France are guaranteed one spot, the final quota likely to be 27 divers, Cryan’s preliminary round is set for next Thursday, the semi-final and final on Friday.

Doha is hosting the championships across three venues: chiefly the Aspire Dome (which seats 15,500), the Hamad Aquatic Centre (home for the diving events), and Doha’s Old Port. After Covid-19 twice forced the postponement of Fukuoka’s hosting, it’s also the first time the event is being staged in an Olympic year.

That has pros and some cons: among the 12 Irish swimmers in action later in the championships are Daniel Wiffen and Mona McSharry, both looking to go where no Irish swimmer has gone before and onto the medal podium at the long-course World Championships.

The proximity to the Olympics, now less than six months away, means some swimmers are bypassing Doha, particularly some of the top US swimmers, who also have their Olympic Trials to contest in early June.

“It’s not easy for anybody and I wouldn’t say this event, taking place in February, has been greeted with bunting or whistles blowing from any nation,” said Swim Ireland national performance director Jon Rudd.

“That’s why we left it open to the athletes, if it’s for you that’s fine, if it’s not for you, that’s fine. I think the depth of competition at these championships will not be as high as we’d have anticipated.”

Not so much in the diving, however, with Cryan among 57 of the world’s very best in the 3m springboard, armed with her own resilience and still daring to believe in her Paris dream.

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