Shaye Boddington diving back into life

Shaye Boddington initially returned to diving to show her daughter what she used to do. Photo / Lara Boddington

For years, when the Olympic Games came around, Shaye Boddington would watch and wish she was there. Mostly she figured it was just a pipe dream. She had no chance, given her situation. But now, at 31, Tokyo in 2020 is in her sights. There are no guarantees but at least now she's in with a sniff.

And that's more than Boddington could have imagined a few years ago.

She is a competitive diver, one of New Zealand's best. The Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April are the next target. Perform strongly at the Gold Coast Grand Prix event next month and those Games will sharpen in focus.

But all this is getting ahead of the story. So time to step back.

Boddington grew up in Zimbabwe. She was a gifted diver and there were good signs on the horizon. But all was not rosy away from the water.

Boddington, one of three sisters living in Harare, was bulimic from a young age. She remembered at about eight vomiting up her food for the first time.

Moving to New Zealand as a teenager, she competed for two years before walking away from the sport. "I took a 13-year break. I didn't realise it was a break, I thought it was the end of my career," she recalled.

She left the sport "out of desperation".

"I was so sick with the eating disorder, I basically couldn't function any more. I knew it was a matter of really focusing on getting well, or most likely it would take my life. It wasn't a choice; I just had to do it."

Boddington traces the root of the problem back to Zimbabwe and she can now see she had issues at a very young age with food.

"It was from a culture of dieting and pressure on women to look a certain way, which was particularly bad in Zimbabwe. I picked it up at a young age.

"When I came to New Zealand, my first coach wasn't a Kiwi, and he focused on how much we weighed. That spiralled out of control and it took about two years before I got to a point where I was about to break."

Her first years out of the water went by in a blur.

"I was trying to get well and I was failing at it. It took three years before I succeeded. I did get to university and did get a degree. Then life began to sparkle again. I did a lot of overseas travel, had my baby Hazel [now three] and got into some really interesting career paths."

The latest is helping design tiny homes, which is gaining traction as a lifestyle choice.

Kiwi diver Shaye Boddington Photo / Lara Boddington

There were times she thought about returning to Zimbabwe. She has an uncle and extended family there but her main reason for wanting to return to visit disappeared when a close friend was murdered in the political violence which has blighted the country.

"Once that was taken away, there was not much left [to go back for]. I just feel so grateful for the chance to make New Zealand my home. Us Kiwis are the luckiest people on the planet."

There was a catch in her throat as those words were said. There's no question when Boddington looks back on life 20 years ago, she stops and thinks about the what ifs.

She now works helping hundreds of other bulimia sufferers. She has written blogs, done videos and for several years put a lot of her time into it.

"I think the way you recover from it is a formula. The same strategies work for most people. It's very rewarding, especially because I know recovery is something you can achieve 100 per cent.

"A lot of people believe when you have the eating disorder, you have to battle it for life and you can learn to manage it. That's a lot of rubbish.

"It's like any habit, you can rebuild new healthy habits. I find that really exciting when I see people doing that because often it's something they didn't know was a possibility."

She returned to diving late last year, undeterred by the fact she was competing against those half her age.

While it's not exclusively a sport for athletes in their teens and twenties, 30-plus competitive divers are rare.

"It wasn't planned. I wanted to get a couple of videos for Hazel. Even if it was simple stuff, at least I'd have it on film to show her when she's older. I went back and had a play around and was surprised to see how strong I was without having done any training for 13 years.

"My first time back on the boards, although it was a bit rough in terms of neatness, was actually some harder stuff than I did when I gave up, and that on my first day back. I had so much fun, too, I realised how much I enjoyed diving as a healthy person."

Steve Gladding, a former British Olympic coach and now senior New Zealand diving coach, takes up the story.

He was running a Masters diving class at West Wave Aquatic centre in Henderson. Boddington was there, on the other side of the pool.

The way you recover from [bulimia] is a formula. The same strategies work for most people. Recovery is something you can achieve 100 per cent.

Shaye Boddington

"I pulled her aside and said 'hey, how serious are you about this?' She said she was, so we thought let's go with it and the rest is history, simple as that."

Gladding remembered her from her Zimbabwe days, when he was coaching in Durban - "she probably doesn't remember me" - but what he noticed was her "power output".

"I would say she's much further on than when she left the sport, just because of the power she can create," Gladding said.

That's no surprise considering the bulimia had left Boddington considerably weakened. The list of dives she's doing now are comparable in difficulty to the best in the world. All she needs is time to polish her routines.

If Boddington gets to the Commonwealth Games, there are 3m synchro and mixed disciplines and possibly 3m individual, but the focus for diving's bosses is firmly on synchro this year.

Last year in Rio, Lizzie Cui became New Zealand's first Olympic diver in 24 years. There are hopes the pair will form a quality pairing.

Gladding acknowledged a "few things need to happen" to keep Boddington firmly on track, but her main requirement is time to fulfil her talents.

Gladding, whose wife Monique dived for Britain aged 31 at the 2012 London Olympics, is an unabashed admirer, not just for her diving skills but how she's pulled her life around.

"She's a fantastic role model and all the kids really look up to her. She brings a sense of energy to what she does. I've got a lot of respect for Shaye to come back after so many years and so many challenges. It's a real test of her character."

Gladding is a never say never type. All divers perform the same degree of difficulty and "you never know" he said of Boddington's chances of not only making the Commonwealth Games but also standing on a podium.

Which just leaves the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

"It's not a stretch at all, and that's what we are all aiming for," Gladding said of Boddington's final ambition.

"It'd be lovely to have a crystal ball in sport," he quipped. "She is good enough to go."

Boddington has no doubt she's a better diver now than before her time away from the sport.

"I'm doing harder dives and feel a lot more joy in my diving. I still have a lot of work to do to get my competition mindset well trained again. I plan on mastering it this time round."

As for Tokyo, "that's my main goal and given the time frames, I think it is pretty realistic".

"There's another two-plus years of training, which is a heap of time. That would be a fantastic thing to achieve. Since I gave up, every year the Olympics roll past, I've watched them and always had a little bit of longing in my heart and a feeling of 'oh, I really missed out'.

"It turns out maybe I didn't."