Meaghan Benfeito's new dive brings in gold
'When he told me I started crying,' Canadian says of switch
Change is not an easy thing for athletes, but sometimes the results are golden.
When two-time Olympian Meaghan Benfeito was told to scrap a dive she'd been working on for 10 years, she cried.
"It was very scary," Benfeito, 26, told CBC Sports. "Trying to change dives and getting out of your comfort zone is not something that we're really used to."
"But I think changing it was probably the best idea my coach has ever had."
Time for change
The adjustment came after Benfeito's performance at the world championships in August in Russia, where she won a pair of silver medals in 10-metre synchronized events but finished seventh in the individual competition. The one big mistake the Montreal-born athlete made was in her back arm stand triple tuck. It's a blind dive where, if the diver doesn't spot the water well, she won't know where vertical is, affecting her entry.
"The arm stand dive I used to do was very inconsistent," said Benfeito. "It could have been really good and it could have been really bad.
"In Russia it was really bad."
Not the best way to finish worlds but happy I opened the spot for Rio 2016 & qualified for world series 💪 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/jobdone?src=hash">#jobdone</a> <a href="http://t.co/2X2p5XUs0Z">pic.twitter.com/2X2p5XUs0Z</a>
—@MegBenfeitoChasing China
So after the world championships, Benfeito's coach, Arturo Miranda, said as soon as they started training again they would transition to a different approach.
Benfeito didn't agree at first, but the work began on the new dive: a back arm stand double with one and a half twists. It's completely different from the old arm stand dive, but the difficulty is only 0.1 of a degree different.
"It changed more than a lot," Benfeito said in terms of how the new dive affected her training. "And it was hard, it was very hard, but it all came out in the end."
The end being last week's Winter Nationals in Saskatoon. Benfeito felt confident and won gold in the 10-metre tower event. The 389.75 points she achieved is competitive with scores China's divers normally hit. The Chinese are the main rivals for Canada's women's divers.
"I'm very, very happy with the performance I did on Saturday," said Benfeito. "I knew exactly how to do the dive. Even, when I missed the dive, it's not as bad as when I used to miss the other one.
"And it just motivates me to keep working hard like that and to look forward to competing against the Chinese."
Finishing off the 2015 season right & starting the 2016 season even better 💪🏼 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/teamspeedo?src=hash">#teamspeedo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nationalchampions?src=hash">#nationalchampions</a> <a href="https://t.co/n5y58YtGi2">pic.twitter.com/n5y58YtGi2</a>
—@MegBenfeitoBetter late than never
Benfeito takes that confidence home for the holidays until she heads to training camp in Cuba on Dec. 28th. There she'll prepare for the FINA Diving Grand Prix in Rostock, Germany taking place Jan. 29-31.
Needless to say, Benfeito will be keeping her new dive in her roster heading into the Olympic year.
"As soon as I learned the new dive, I said to my coach, why didn't you make me learn the new dive way earlier?" she said.
"But everything happens for a reason. I'm glad it came before the Olympics."