Thunder Bay diver Molly Carlson reaching new heights with cliff diving

Molly Carlson grew up on a diving board.

The diver, born in Fort Frances, but raised in Thunder Bay, competed at a national and international level, eventually earning an athletic scholarship to Florida State University in the United States.

But now, Carlson has quite literally taken her career to new heights.

The 22-year-old has transitioned to cliff diving, competing in her first Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series event earlier this month in France, placing second.

It started with a joke last year, asking her social media followers whether she should give it a try. The resoundingly positive response led her to give it some serious thought.

"It was crazy that everyone believed in me, and then this spark in me said 'you know what, I'm not complete,'" she said. "When COVID hit, I knew that I kind of I wanted something bigger and better but outside of what I had been doing for 12 years."

More than a decade of springboard and platform diving had taken a toll on Carlson's body, especially her hands, with six broken wrists in her career. High diving and cliff divers enter the water feet first.

After graduating from Florida State, Carlson moved back to Canada and is now based in Montreal, where she trains off a 20-metre tower.

"The first time, I looked at my coach and said, 'why are we in the roof?' Is this reality, are we really doing this," Carlson said. "You're really in these rafters. You have a foot of space to be walking on.

"Just the walk alone is so terrifying. Once you get up to the platform, for my first time, I was just so excited to finally do a high dive that I think I just did it without even thinking. Then the night of, I was like "oh my gosh, I did that." It was so high and so scary, but it was where I wanted to be. I knew right from that first jump that I had enough dare in me to go forward with this sport."

The Red Bull cliff diving series sees participants hit the water from heights of between 20 and 22 metres, spending as long as three seconds in the air and can reach speeds of up to 85 kilometres per hour.

Carlson, who had been used to the uniformity of the board and platform in her previous diving career, said the different heights require some adjustments.

The competition requires participants to do one of their four dives off a rocky, cliff ledge, rather than using a constructed platform.

"When you're travelling for Red Bull, you're going from an indoor, perfect pool to a place with wind, waves and height changes and a lot of diversity that you have to work around," she said.

"The first time I went off the rock we had to harness down, rock climb and then jump off this one-foot-by-one-foot little ledge in the middle of France and it was so terrifying, but that moment you hit the water it's one of the biggest accomplishments."

Carlson said her favourite part of her new sport is that it shows her who she can be, and who she never thought she could be.

"Being able to prove myself, how brave I am on a daily basis, gives me motivation to help spread my message to the youth," she said. 

"One of the major things I promote on my socials is really to be your unique self. Whether your brave story is jumping off 20 metres or getting out of bed in the morning, everyone has their unique brave story."