Olympic moment of the day: Facing giants, diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix shows what sports – and life – are all about

By Patrick Sung, CNN

(CNN) — Sports are everything. A ball entering a net, a perfect floor routine or a car crossing a line first cause the greatest of emotions in every spectator or participant: joy and ecstasy, sadness and anger, amazement and awe.

The Olympic Games are perhaps the biggest stage of them all for this theatre of feeling. We marvel at the feats of humanity, witness the passion of our athletes – for what is sport if not a conduit to feel community and identity. Sometimes, though, we get a reminder of what success really is – far away from the gold, silver and bronze.

One of those came Tuesday at Paris’ Aquatics Centre, built for these Games.

Great Britain’s Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix had entered Tuesday’s individual 10m platform with a bronze in the 10m synchronized platform with partner Lois Toulson. The medal win – one of Britain’s first in 64 years before last Saturday in women’s diving – had earned plaudits across her home nation and brought tears to Spendolini-Sirieix’s eyes as she was interviewed by the BBC crew, which included her father, Fred Sirieix.

Fred Sirieix, who has appeared on a number of well-known shows in the UK throughout his career, was at the Aquatics Centre watching Spendolini-Sirieix dive over the last few days.

He, like his daughter, was also in tears as he helped interview the new British hero after she won the bronze and was there again to see her compete in the individual event on Tuesday.

Spendolini-Sirieix entered the individual competition with confidence; after all, she won bronze and held her own against the two greatest divers in the world, China’s Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi at the 2024 World Championships in Doha earlier this year.

Yet as the day played out, Quan – who Spendolini-Sirieix calls her “mei mei [younger sister in Mandarin]” – and Chen performed at an almost superhuman level. Defending Olympic champion Quan’s first dive was literally perfect, earning 10s from every judge to move her out front into the gold medal position that she would never relinquish.

In the face of this pressure, Spendolini-Sirieix performed admirably on her first dive, notching the fourth-best score of the opening round, but her following three dives scored among the bottom performers in each round, taking her down to seventh in the standings.

As the Chinese superstar duo – whom the British diver went toe-to-toe with at worlds – soared ever higher and confirmed their defense of their Tokyo gold and silver, Spendolini-Sirieix showed one last flourish of her talent with her back 2½ somersaults, one-and-a-half twists pike, scoring 81.6 – the same as Quan.

Though the Team GB diver finished in sixth, the 19-year-old’s fight back from disappointing dives to finish on a high showed the resilience of a future medalist.

And it was resilience which Spendolini-Sirieix demonstrated most in her post-event interview with the BBC, admitting that she had come back from the lowest of lows to compete at the Olympics.

“Obviously, it wasn’t a result that I wanted, but I’m not even upset with the competition. I mean, the girls dove amazing, they dove better than me today and it’s because they work really hard. Then yeah, as you said, it wasn’t meant to be,” she said, tears diving down her cheeks.

“I’m not even like… like genuinely, I’m not trying to like be macho, I’m not upset with my performance. Three years ago, I didn’t even want to be alive, so to say … that I’m happy I’m alive and I’m breathing, and I’ve got my family to support me.”

Earlier, after the results were posted, the teenager ran to the stands to stand on a chair and embrace her mother in the stands, listening to the words which matter most.

“My mom was like, ‘Just keep smiling. We’re proud of you. We’re here to see you.’ And at the end of the day, that’s all I can ask for,” Spendolini-Sirieix said.

“I’m so happy to be here, to be at the Olympic Games. It’s been a really long year, and it doesn’t take away from my accomplishments this year and just missing out on one medal doesn’t change who I am, so yeah, I think it was just, it was God’s way of saying, ‘We’ve still got a lot more to do.’”

In the face of the two giants and a performance that was below her usual world-class standard, Spendolini-Sirieix embodied what the Olympic Games and life are all about: the struggle to get better, to get back up in the face of adversity and the resilience to push forward with “a lot more to do.”

The-CNN-Wire
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