With a handful of Olympians and many more who hope to add that title to their names in 2020, Team USA divers are ready to compete at the FINA World Championships, which begin Friday in Budapest, Hungary.
Michael Hixon and Sam Dorman will look to add a world title to the Olympic silver medal they won in men’s synchronized 3-meter last summer. Steele Johnson will look to do the same in the men’s synchronized 10-meter, with new partner Brandon Loschiavo.
Krysta Palmer and 2016 Olympian Jessica Parratto will both be showcasing some of the more difficult dives on the women’s side right now, while some of the team’s youngest members — Maria Coburn, 15, and Tarrin Gilliland, 14 — hope to make statements in their senior world championship debuts.
Here’s a closer look at the Team USA divers who’ll be competing this week:
Andrew Capobianco
Mixed synchronized 10-meter
The incoming Indiana freshman was a member of the 2014 and 2016 junior world championships teams but is making his debut as a senior after winning the national title with Lauren Reedy. Capobianco won the national championship in the 3-meter in 2016 and is a five-time junior national champion.
Maria Coburn
Women’s 1-meter, synchronized 3-meter
Coburn won gold in the 1-meter and silver in the 3-meter at the 2016 junior world championships, and now, at 15 years old, she’ll make her senior world championship debut. In May, she won her first senior international medal in just her third senior international meet when she won silver on the 3-meter at the FINA Madrid Grand Prix.
David Dinsmore
Men’s 10-meter, mixed team event
In Dinsmore’s first trip to the world championships in 2015, he finished 15th on the 10-meter. He earned a return trip this year after taking a big lead into the 10-meter final at the World Championships Trials and maintained it to get the win. Dinsmore won his first senior national title on 10-meter in 2015 and this year added NCAA platform champion to his résumé.
Sam Dorman
Men’s synchronized 3-meter
Dorman placed seventh in the synchronized 3-meter at his first trip to the world championships in 2015. Since then, the seven-time national champion (including five synchronized 3-meter titles) has added Olympic silver medalist to his résumé after pairing with Michael Hixon for the first time last summer just prior to the Olympic trials. The pair will compete in the same event together in Budapest.
Alison Gibson
Women’s 1-meter, synchronized 3-meter
Gibson was recently crowned NCAA champion on 1-meter as a freshman at Texas and will be making her world championships debut competing in the same event. She’s also a 2015 Junior Pan American Championships gold medalist on 1-meter and a three-time junior national champion who finished sixth on 3-meter at the Olympic Trials last year.
Tarrin Gilliland
Women’s synchronized 10-meter, mixed synchronized 10-meter
Gilliland is a five-time junior national champion who won a bronze medal at the 2015 USA Diving Winter National Championships and was the youngest diver to compete at Olympic trials last summer at the age of 13. The high school freshman, now 14, won the mixed synchronized 10-meter with Andrew Capobianco and the women’s synchronized 10-meter with Jessica Parratto to earn her first trip to the world championships.
Briadam Herrera
Mixed synchronized 3-meter
Herrera partnered with Lauren Reedy to win the national title in mixed synchronized 3-meter and will now be competing at the world championships for the first time. His résumé also includes a national championship on 1-meter in 2015 and a bronze medal on 1-meter at the 2015 World University Games. A teammate of David Dinsmore at Miami, he will be returning to the World University Games in August.
Michael Hixon
Men’s 1-meter, 3-meter, synchronized 3-meter
This is Hixon’s third trip to the world championships, having won a bronze medal in the 1-meter and finished 13th in the 3-meter in 2015 and 5th in synchronized 3-meter in 2013. Last summer, Hixon and Sam Dorman made their Olympic debuts in synchronized 3-meter and won a silver medal, giving the U.S. men their best-ever finish in the event at the Olympics. Hixon won the 1-meter at the USA Diving Winter National Championship in December and the 3-meter at the World Championships Trials.
Steele Johnson
Men’s 1-meter, 3-meter, synchronized 10-meter
Johnson is returning to the world championships for the second time after finishing fifth in synchronized 10-meter in 2015. More recently, Johnson won an Olympic silver medal in synchronized 10-meter with David Boudia last year, won his 12th senior national title when he and Purdue teammate Brandon Loschiavo won the 10-meter synchro title this spring in their first competition together, and was crowed NCAA champion in the 1-meter.
Brandon Loschiavo
Men’s synchronized 10-meter
The current national champion in the men’s synchronized 10-meter is making his world championship debut in the same event. He and Steele Johnson won the 10-meter synchro title at the national championships in April for his first career senior title. Loschiavo was also All-American in platform this past season, his freshman year at Purdue.
Krysta Palmer
Women’s 3-meter, mixed team event
Palmer, who participated in gymnastics and trampoline but didn’t start diving until she was 20, is making her world championship debut. Now 25, her forward 2½ somersault 2 twist pike is a dive few other women in the sport are doing right now and was the highest scoring dive of any diver in the final at the World Championships Trials.
Jessica Parratto
Women’s 10-meter, synchronized 10-meter
Competing on the world stage is nothing new to Parratto, who is returning to the world championships for the third time. She was 15th in the 10-meter in 2011 and 21st in 2015, then finished 10th in Rio in 2016 in her first trip to the Olympic Games. Parratto also has an incredibly difficult dive in her arsenal: a back 3 ½ pike with a degree of difficulty of 3.6 that sets her apart from much of the competition.
Lauren Reedy
Mixed synchronized 3-meter
Reedy is not only the reigning mixed synchronized 3-meter champ but she also won SEC Diver of the Year and the SEC champion on 1-meter as a senior at Missouri this year. She ended her college career as Missouri’s record holder in both 1-meter and 3-meter. She is a nominee for the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year award, which will be announced in October.
Delaney Schnell
Women’s 10-meter
The 18-year-old is a two-time junior national champion and a two-time Junior Pan American silver medalist on platform (both in 2011 and 2013), but this will be her first time competing at the world championships. Schnell is preparing to enter her freshman year at Arizona.
Brooke Schultz
Women’s 3-meter
The two-time senior national champion in 1-meter and 3-meter synchronized will be making her world championships debut. Showing remarkable consistency, her score of 976.30 at the World Championships Trials gave her the win by a large margin. The 18-year-old also won gold in the 1-meter at the 2014 junior world championships.
Jordan Windle
Men’s 10-meter
Windle competed at the world championships in the mixed synchro 3-meter event in 2015, but this will be his first time competing in the men’s 10-meter after a second-place finish at the trials. He is a four-time senior national champion, including one title in the 10-meter, and a four-time junior national individual champion.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
