| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | American | |||||||||||||
| Born | August 25, 1956 Houston, Texas, U.S. | |||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | Diving | |||||||||||||
| College team | University of Miami | |||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||
Melissa Briley (born August 25, 1956) is an American diver. She competed in the women's 10 metre platform event at the 1976 Summer Olympics. [1]
Briley was a student at the University of Miami and was the only female member from the university that competed in the 1976 Olympic team. During the Olympic trials in June 1976, she finished second in the 10-meter platform dive to then world champion Janet Ely, having won the National Amateur Athletic Union platform dive earlier in the year. [2]
During a diving meet in Moscow in 1979, Briley broke her right leg when slipping on ice as she was boarding a train. Initially, she was unaware it was broken and traveled for several days before getting it assessed after it swelled. Upon getting her diagnoses, she was unable to compete for several months, instead focusing on weight lifting. She believed it was only because of her accident that she was able to focus on training her diving entry, which needed the most work. She downplayed her injury, suggesting that "it probably was the easiest thing for a diver to overcome." Despite finishing third in the 1979 Pan American Games diving trials and thus missing out on a berth, she did win the women's 10-meter platform competition in the Swimming Hall of Fame pool in May 1980. Her win in May followed another win in Winnipeg, Canada just two weeks prior. [3]
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, usually while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.
Émilie-Joane Heymans is a Canadian diver. She was born in Brussels, Belgium and raised in Greenfield Park, a suburb of Montreal. Heymans has won four Olympic medals, two bronze and two silver. She was the first female diver to win medals in four consecutive Olympic games and the first Canadian to win medals in four consecutive Olympics. Heymans also is a one time world champion and has won four Pan American championships as well as one Commonwealth Games championship. In addition she has won multiple medals in all three of these competitions.
Tania Cagnotto is an Italian diver. She is the first female Italian diver to win a medal in a World Championship. A five-time Olympian, she won medals in both individual and synchronized springboard diving in her final appearance at the Olympics in 2016. She is also a 20-time champion at the European level.
Laura Ann Wilkinson is an American diver, 3 time Olympian, and Olympic gold medalist. She is the first woman to win the three major diving world titles. Wilkinson retired in 2008. After nine years of retirement, she returned to competition in 2017 and placed 2nd at Nationals. She trained for her fourth Olympic Games (2021) at Texas A&M University's swimming and diving facilities but did not qualify.
Brittany Ann Viola is an American platform diver formerly for the University of Miami. In 2008 and 2011, she won the NCAA championship in diving's ten-meter platform. She was named to the United States diving team for the 2009 World Aquatics Championships 2011 World Aquatics Championships held in Rome and Shanghai, respectively. Viola was named Captain of the U.S. Diving Team for the 2009 event.
Tracy Anne Stockwell, OAM,, née Tracy Anne Caulkins, is an American former competition swimmer, three-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time world champion, and former world record-holder in three events.
Loudy Wiggins is a former Australian diver. She was born in Haifa, Israel to Palestinian parents, but moved to Australia when she was 3 years old.
Margarete "Grete" Adler was an Austrian freestyle swimmer, diver, and gymnastics teacher, who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics and in the 1924 Summer Olympics. She was Jewish, and was born in Vienna.
Melissa Paige Li Kun Wu is an Australian diver who has represented Australia at four Olympic Games, winning a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games and a bronze medal at the 2020 Olympic Games. She has also represented Australia at five Commonwealth Games, winning gold medals in 2010, 2018 and 2022 and silver medals in 2006 and 2010. Wu is a NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holder.
Alexandra Lindsay "Alex" Croak is an Australian diver and gymnast who is a dual Olympic representative. She represented Australia as a gymnast at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and after a strong performance at the 2008 Australian national Diving Championships, she was selected for Australia's diving team for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She is the first Australian athlete to win gold medals at the Commonwealth games in two different disciplines. She was also an Australian Institute of Sport gymnastics and diving scholarship holder.
Kelly Anne McCormick is a retired female diver from the United States. She twice competed for her native country at the Summer Olympics, winning a silver (1984) and a bronze medal (1988) in the Women's 3m Springboard event.
Megan Neyer is an American former competition springboard and platform diver. Neyer was a member of the ill-fated 1980 U.S. Olympic team, the 1982 world champion springboard diver, a fifteen-time U.S. national diving champion, and an eight-time NCAA champion.
Janet Ely is a retired American female diver. She competed at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and finished fourth in 1972, both in the 3 m springboard and 10 m platform. In 1975 she won the world title in the platform and placed second at the Pan American Games. Domestically Ely held the AAU platform titles in 1972 and 1975.
Barbara Ellen Talmage is an American diver. She won a gold medal in springboard diving at the 1963 Pan American Games in São Paulo and competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics and the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Jill Ann Sterkel is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, former world record-holder, and water polo player. Sterkel won four medals in three Olympic Games spanning twelve years. She was the women's head coach of the Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team at the University of Texas at Austin from 1992 to 2007.
Cynthia "Cindy" Shatto was a Canadian diver. She won a gold medal in the 1974 British Commonwealth Games 3 metre springboard event and competed in the women's 10 metre platform event at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where she finished fifth following controversy over the judges' scoring.
Ren Xi, known internationally as Ren Qian, is a Chinese diver. She won a silver medal in the women's 10 m platform at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, and then followed it with a gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, becoming the youngest champion to top the podium.
Katrina Young is an American diver. She competed for the United States in the women's 10-meter diving at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and in the 10-meter platform contest at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Eniko Kiefer is a Canadian diver. She competed in the women's 3 metre springboard event at the 1976 Summer Olympics. During the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, she won a bronze medal in the 3 meter women's springboard event.
Linda Cuthbert is a Canadian former diver and present sports director of Commonwealth Sport Canada since 2006, having also served as a technical official for several commonwealth games. During her diving career, Cuthbert won a bronze medal in each of the 1975 and 1979 Pan American Games platform diving events, as well as a gold medal in the 1978 Commonwealth Games 10 metre highboard event. Cuthbert began diving at age 10 and started to take it seriously in 1967, when she had a series of different coaches until settling with Don Webb, who became her permanent coach.
