Diving into the history books: Tanya Watson qualifies for the Olympics

19-year-old Tanya Watson is making history by becoming the first female Irish diver to qualify for the Olympics.

Competing in the FINA Diving World Cup in Tokyo this morning, Watson finished in 16th place in the preliminaries for the 10-metre platform with a score of 271.85 points. This not only means that she now advances to the semi finals, but she’ll also qualify for the summer Olympics.

Meanwhile, fellow Irish diver Ciara McGing just missed out on an automatic qualification, finishing in 23rd place with a score of 240.95 points. Ciara will now have to wait until the middle of May to find out if she bags a place at the Olympics, after ranking closes.

The Olympic Games were originally planned to take place in Tokyo during the summer of 2020. However, due to the global pandemic the Games were postponed for the first time in history, until July 23 2021.

With coronavirus still very much at large, this year’s Olympic Games will look a lot different, with no international spectators allowed to attend. 

Huge congratulations to Tanya on her Olympic qualification — we can’t wait to cheer her on at this year’s summer Games!