Carol-Ann Ware: “It is truly an honour to be here diving for Canada and I am so happy about our tower synchro performance!” | Photos by Sam Charles
Carol-Ann Ware (right) and her Canadian teammate Celina Toth.
“It is truly an honour to be here diving for Canada and I am so happy about our tower synchro performance!” said Carol-Ann Ware.
Ware and Toth grew up in the sport together. They had wanted to form a team for some time, but living on opposite sides of the country made it impossible for them. They had never had the opportunity to dive together before the Games.
The athletes came into the competition thinking that they would only dive individually. When they were asked to compete in the 10-metre synchronized event, they couldn’t pass up the offer. Toth says, “I was very nervous. Synchro is all team work and a lot of compromise but I think we did a good job of quickly figuring out how we would compete well together.”
The two divers had very little time to prepare, but Ware and Toth were confident because they had put in a lot of training by themselves. “We worked really hard individually and when we were asked to do synchro, I was super excited because I knew we would be a great team,” says Ware.
Still, winning the gold was a surprise. “It was more than we could have asked for,” says Ware.
The duo won the first Canadian medal at Universiade this year. It’s the country’s first gold medal at the World University Games since Buffalo in 1993, when Olympian Anne Montminy took gold in the individual 10-metre platform event.
For Ware, who is currently enrolled in the Studio Arts program at Concordia, the win is a big accomplishment. This year is the first time she has participated in the Universiade Games. She competed at both the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where she finished seventh in the individual 10m platform.
What’s next for the full-time student and Universiade gold medalist? The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro are just over a year away, and Ware is working hard to earn a spot on the Canadian team.
“I am glad to say that I have ended my season with a bang,” she told her Twitter followers Monday after winning gold in Gwangju. “I'm ready to come back stronger next year!”
Watch Carol-Ann Ware and Celina Toth dive at the 20-second mark:
Banner image courtesy of Diving Canada.