Abu Dhabi: There is hardly anything that Briton Gary Hunt has not achieved in high diving and he once again proved that he is in a class of his own by retaining the FINA High Diving World Cup at the Yas Marina on Saturday.
However, like any athlete, he too is hoping that one day he will get an opportunity to showcase his talent at the biggest sporting extravaganza — the Olympics.
Last week at the capital, Fina, the international governing body for six disciplines of aquatics sports, had announced that they have put forth a proposal to add high diving to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
“It is a personal goal of any athlete to perform at the Olympics as it is the biggest stage. At a personal level, it will be gratifying and it will be a big achievement but more importantly, the sport will be on a bigger stage. It will definitely happen,” said Hunt, adding that Olympics berth would take the sport to a new level and other federations around the world will see the sport and it will create awareness and will help to get more high divers.
Fina’s biggest challenge to overcome would be the International Olympic Committee (IOC) standard charter of including a sport, which states for a sport to be included at the Olympic level, it should be played by men in at least 75 countries on four continents and by women in 40 countries on three continents.
High diving is different from the traditional indoor, springboard and platform diving as it involves divers leaping from heights over 20 to 27 metres platform and is still in the infant stage.
It has not reached the wider audience despite Fina already adding it in the 2013 FINA World Aquatics Championships and being contested at the popular Red Bull Cliff Diving series.
It is highly unlike that the sport would find a place at the Games in Tokyo but Hunt is hoping that by 2024, it should definitely break that barrier if not by 2020. “I live in France and Paris is one of the candidate cities for 2024. For me, if it is not included in 2020 I would push hard as I can to see it being included in 2024,” said Hunt adding that, he was confident of keeping himself in the best of shape till then.
“Yes, obviously as the years go on, it will be more and more difficult to stay in good shape. But as we are seeing in other sports, athletes are staying longer and longer periods,” said the 32-year-old, adding that experience is what counts in his sport but the sooner high diving is included in Olympics, the better for him.
Mexican Jonathan Paredes, another rising star in high diving, also echoed the similar sentiments. “I think it is possible but I know it is going to be hard to get in. However, I trust the people who are pushing the sport. I can assure you if that happens, you are going to see a spectacular sport in the Olympics.”
