Tanya Watson
Diving
BIOGRAPHY
Tanya Watson represented Ireland in the women’s 10 metre platform diving event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, becoming the first Irish female diver to compete at the Games.
She finished 16th in the preliminary round with a score of 289.4 points, advancing to the semi-finals, where she placed 15th and narrowly missed the final.
Watson was born in Southampton, England, and qualifies for Ireland through her maternal grandmother, who was from Derry. She started out as a gymnast before switching to diving, and was a finalist at both the European Junior and World Junior Championships in 2018 before finishing 5th at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires that year. During the Covid-19 pandemic she relocated to Dublin to train at the National Aquatic Centre with national coach Damian Ball, having previously been based at the Southampton Diving Academy under Lindsey Fraser. She qualified for Tokyo at the FINA Diving World Cup in May 2021.
Her faith as a committed Christian has been a significant part of her approach to the sport, providing, she has said, a foundation that goes beyond results. She subsequently won a place to read chemistry at Oxford University, attending St Peter’s College, and in 2022 became the first female diver to represent Team Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games, finishing 10th.
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