Diving: A chat with Gabrielle Armstrong-Scott

Gabrielle Armstrong-Scott says she discovered she had a passion for the sport straight away. Photo / Getty Images

Gabrielle Armstrong-Scott pleaded for the chance to hurtle off the 10-metre board at her local Kilbirnie pool the moment she took up diving.

She was just 8 years old at the time.

"Most people's knees knock together when they first get up there," says Armstrong-Scott, a Year 10 student at St Catherine's College for girls in Wellington.

"It never bothered me. I found I had this passion - I really enjoyed it straight away."

Armstrong-Scott made headlines this week when selected as the lone New Zealand diver for the Commonwealth Games in India.

Her progress at a young age in a niche sport won her selection, even though a Commonwealth ranking of nine is outside the national criterion of six.

She will be just 34 days past her 14th birthday when the Games begin in early October, becoming the second-youngest New Zealand competitor, after 1970s swimmer Monique Rodahl.

Armstrong-Scott followed her gymnast brother Ollie - the country's top male diver who has just won gold and bronze at the Aussie elite junior championships - into diving after he was talent-spotted by a coach.

They come from a musical family. Dad Donald Armstrong plays violin and is an associate concertmaster in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, where mum Mary Scott played clarinet until she moved into the health sector.

Armstrong-Scott - Gabe to her mates - sets the bar very high.

She trains 22 hours a week - which zooms to well over 30 hours during the school holidays - under the strict guidance of Steven Zhu, head coach of the Wellington high performance squad.

(Zhu, from China, was lured to Wellington through sponsorship deals after working in Auckland and West Australia.)

Around that, Armstrong-Scott has passed her grade eight exams with honours in violin, and is not far behind in piano. Yet she steadfastly nominates education as the most important aspect of her young life.

Here, she takes a few questions from the Weekend Herald.

Q. Congratulations, Gabrielle. Were you nervous about the Commonwealth Games selection?

A. Very. It is a huge weight off my shoulders. I had done my best but had no idea if it was enough. I'm really looking forward to it, especially going to India. I'm hoping for a top six finish but I'm not really sure where I fit into the rankings.

Q. How will you handle the Games pressure at such a young age?

A. My age will be an asset because I don't think there will be much pressure on me. More experienced divers will feel more pressure. I might be a bit intimidated seeing the older divers, but I am going to learn a lot.

Q. What do you love most about your sport?

A. I feel I've experienced a lot more than most people my age. I've travelled to Russia, Germany and China and heaps to Australia. My coach and sometimes a manager go but they are not my age, and often I'm the only diver in the team, so with things like that comes maturity. I really enjoy the travelling and meeting new people. I love the family atmosphere in diving, even at the big international competitions. People in the sport are really welcoming and supportive - there is no nasty competitiveness between the divers.

Q. Do you have a sporting hero?

A. Greg Louganis, the American diver who hit his head on the board at the Olympics [in 1988] and still won gold. So many terrible things happened in his life. I saw his book in a library - there was a picture of a diver on the front so of course I grabbed it. He became an inspiration. Valerie Vili and Mahe Drysdale are big inspirations to me.

Q. A favourite venue?

A. Kilbirnie of course, my home pool ... internationally I loved the pool at the World Cup in Changzhou. Some divers like small pools but I like the big ones and diving off a wide platform, the feeling that you are further away from the spectators, separated off, so it is just you and the diving board.

Q. You must develop a strong bond with your coach in such an individual sport?

A. Steven and I come from very different cultures and backgrounds and at times it has been hard. We have learned how to best communicate and co-operate to make a very good environment in training. He comes from a culture where the attitude is a lot tougher than what we regard as normal in New Zealand. He is not very relaxed - he is very, very serious, which makes training very intense. I have had to speak to my parents and others around the sport and Steven at times about that. I taught myself how to deal with it, to learn how to make his coaching work for me rather than take it negatively. This has been another one of my life lessons.

Q. High diving looks a tad dangerous ...

A. Every diver has splats. The 10-metre board is definitely the hardest - if you screw it up then you get wasted. I'm learning three dives with higher degrees of difficulty for the world junior champs in Arizona. You have to make sure all the build-up is correct. I have been left black and blue at times over the years ... my worst was when I didn't dry myself properly with the chamois and my hands slipped while I was rotating and holding my legs. It was a massive belly flop. I went straight back up and did it again so I didn't lose my nerve. You need heaps of mental toughness for this sport.

Q. Your social life must be very challenging ...

A. I have a great relationship with my friends but obviously I don't get a lot of time out of school to do things with them. I always keep in touch, though, and make sure there are weekends when we can do things like go to the movies. My hobby, I suppose, is being with family and friends, doing new things and having a good time. I make sure that I have a few minutes to myself every day.

Q. Career aims?

A. I've got plenty of time to work that out but I want to go to university.

Q. What is your ultimate aim in diving?

A. To medal at the Olympics, hopefully in London [in 2012], and at even more Games after that. And to make diving more popular in New Zealand.