Doha, Qatar, February 11, 2024: For a year of stunning achievements, Australia’s 10m platform star Cassiel Rousseau and China’s 3m springboard ace Chen Yiwen were named 2023 male and female diving Athletes of the Year by World Aquatics.
The year 2023 will always be an extraordinary vintage for Rousseau and Chen. That’s when Rousseau stunned the world by winning the 10m world championship title in Fukuoka, Japan, and Chen utterly dominated the women’s 3m discipline.
They were named 2023 male and female diving Athletes of the Year at the Hamad Aquatic Centre during the World Aquatics Championships – Doha 2024.
When Rousseau, 23, became world champion in men’s 10m last year, the feat was extra newsworthy because his victory snapped China’s reign of diving dominance. Since 2017, China had won every world championship diving event it had entered – until the historic Saturday, July 22, 2023, when the stylish Brisbane native scored 520.85 points (a personal best), and no one could top it.
Both winners also received a monetary bonus of USD 10,000.
Chen, 24, was also honoured for winning just about everything in women’s 3m springboard in 2023. She won the Xi’an World Cup in April, with a personal record 404.70 points, and the Montreal World Cup in May. In July, she successfully defended her 2022 world title in Fukuoka, Japan, and went on to win the Berlin Super Final in August and the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in October.
“This award made my day,” Chen said. “They only told me this morning. I expected this award a bit; I was thinking about it.”
She added: “Last year was not the best year of my life, definitely not. Last year's world championships were not as good as I wanted, but it gave me a lot of experience, like how to change my mindset into the competition.”
As for the prize money, Chen said: “It is Chinese New Year so I need to support my family. I will spend it on my family.”
