A synchronized diving team from Palm Beach County is testing their teamwork while trying to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
The first question WPTV reporter Todd Wilson posed to Kaylee Bishop and her coach Michelle Sandelin was, “What does it take to be a good, synchronized diver?”
“A lot of time, patience, flexibility, just being able to work with your partner and have a good relationship with them,” Bishop said.
Bishop and Emilie Moore are diving partners with sights set on the highest of heights. While the teen phenoms from Boca Raton thrived individually in the pool for years, it was just last year that their diving partnership began.
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It’s a partnership that at times can mean Moore and Bishop are separated by thousands of miles. Moore is a student at Stanford University, and Bishop is here in South Florida preparing for her senior year of high school.
The need to stay in sync has taken on a new dimension.
“Basically, you have to trust in your partner that they’re putting in the same amount of work as you, making the same improvements as you,” Bishop said. “I count for me and Emilie, so we actually recorded an audio of me counting so she can listen to it.”
For those who don’t know how a synchronized diving competition works, timing is everything.
Bishop and Moore compete on the 10-meter platform. Just for reference, diving off a 10-meter platform is like jumping off a three-story building. There are two rounds of voluntaries, which are the easier dives followed by three rounds of optimal, which are the harder dives.
At the Olympics, all dives are scored by a panel of judges. The judges rate the execution and synchronization of every dive on a scale of 1-10.
Sandelin prepares the teens for the best of the best.
“They were in the World Series finale in China competing with the top divers in the whole world,” Sandelin said. “Olympic gold medalists, Olympic silver medalists, they were all there and they just competed against them a couple of months ago.”
Bishop and Moore are now showcasing their skills at the Olympic trials in Tennessee, knowing that a spot in Paris is on the line.
“We’re just going to give it our best,” Bishop said.
Bishop admits time is on her side. At 17-years-old, once she finishes a private online school, she’s committed to Indiana University, one of the best diving programs in the country. So, the way she looks at things we could be hearing their names in the 2028 and 2032 Olympic Games.