By Nicole Jeffery
Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) '90
The potential was always there, but UQ alum Maddison Keeney had to overcome both mental demons and physical challenges to step onto the Olympic podium in Paris today (August 10).
Keeney (Bachelor of Science '17) won the silver medal in the women's 3-metre springboard in a performance of consistency and confidence, pulling off the most difficult dive in the competition to seal her first individual Olympic medal.
She is also the first Australian in history to win an individual Olympic medal in a springboard diving event.
"It's everything,'' she said, with the silver medal around her neck.
"It's coming from the bottom of the barrel around 2020, 2021, missing out on Tokyo [Olympics]. I think it's made me a better person, it's made me a better athlete and I've really fallen back in love with the sport."
"It was really thrilling because I've been diving well all week, so there was a bit of pressure on myself because I know I can perform well.
"Being able to do that in the final, under that pressure, really shows how much training I've been doing, all the work I've been doing to work on my consistency. I'm relieved, it was really exciting, such a great atmosphere and I'm so happy."
The 28-year-old bounced back from the disappointment of an error on the last dive of the 3-metre synchro event, when she and partner Annabelle Smith were in medal position earlier in the Games, to produce a rock-solid performance through 3 rounds of the individual competition.
She was in second place after the preliminaries, semi-final and final, out-performed only by China's 2-time world champion Chen Yiwen.
Chen led throughout the competition, her consistent excellence unmatched by the rest of the field as she accumulated a score of 376.00 across her 5 dives in the final.
Keeney had started slowly in the previous rounds before surging through the ranks, but in the final she produced a solid first dive - a reverse 2.5 somersaults with pike - which put her immediately into a medal position, which she never relinquished.
She had a "little blip" on her third dive, an inward 2.5 somersaults with pike, where she made a slight error on landing, but she finished strongly, scoring well with her 2 most difficult dives, a forward 3.5 somersaults with pike, and the most difficult dive in the competition, a forward 2.5 somersaults with 2 twists, which no one else even attempted.
That confirmed her placing, as she split the usually dominant Chinese duo and relegated the current world champion Chang Yani (318.75) to the bronze medal.
Keeney has always been known for tackling the biggest dives in the program, but she suffered from nerves and inconsistency in the early part of her career.
"In order to beat the Chinese you need to take risks,'' she explained.
"I know that I can perform this dive. I'm lucky to be very gifted, I'm quite strong on the springboard so I'm able to perform these more difficult dives."
She won a bronze medal with Smith in the 3-metre synchro on her Olympic debut in Rio in 2016, but missed the Tokyo Games in 2021, after knee and shoulder surgery disrupted her preparation.
However, she said all her international experience over the last 10 years, good and bad, had led her to this performance.
"It's been a huge journey to get here,'' she said.
"My legs have buckled from under me [at key moments in the past[, but those moments really kind of made me, just going through that,'' she said.
"A lot of those experiences - baulking, falling off the board - it's made me who I am today. I've been forged in fire and I know, deep in me, I'm not unshakeable, but I'm pretty solid now.''
Keeney said on her final dive - the biggest in her repertoire - that she just focussed on getting her shaking legs to jump off the board.
"It's a hard dive and being able to perform it under pressure, especially in the last round with a medal on the line, I'm really really proud that I was able to do that,'' she said.
"It's just something so thrilling - anything can go wrong. You're standing up there and you've got this voice in the back of your head saying - just fall forward and you will probably be alright for a medal… and you're physically shaking and your heart is pounding and it's a different beast, but this is living. It's what you live for - exhilarating is a great word for it."
Keeney was also thrilled to have her medal presented by the Oscar-winning actress, and International Olympic Committee member, Michelle Yeoh, who was a diver in her youth.
"I probably embarrassed myself and told her I loved her,'' she said afterwards.
But a moment of fan-girling aside, maturity has been Keeney's superpower at these Games. She has balanced her life by taking a full time IT job in BHP's fleet management team in Brisbane to support herself financially while she continues diving.
"I came into this Olympics just deeply happy internally, no matter what the outcome would be,'' she said.
