Yorkshire diving prospect Maisie Bond targeting LA2028 and senior step up after breakthrough year

The 17-year-old from Sheffield is aiming to make the jump to senior competitions in the first year of the Los Angeles Olympic cycle.

She ended 2024 by winning two world junior medals in Brazil, with a silver in the individual 10m platform and a bronze in the synchronised 10m, alongside Hannah Newbrook.

Bond said: “I want to have more senior exposure, doing the senior competitions so that I can get my name out in the senior world a bit.

“Because people know who I am in the junior world as I've been competing in that for a while, and succeeding, I want to be able to get some experience in the senior realm.”

She must balance her diving commitments with college, as she aims to retain her European junior title in Greece this year.

Bond said: “I definitely want to go to the junior Europeans again next summer.

“I had a great performance at the Europeans, especially after coming back from being injured, but I'd like to do better and make my name

“I won the two previous junior Europeans I went to, and I want to do that again.”

Longer-term, she is targeting the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Bond said: “It’s definitely something that I’m aiming for.

“I think it's a good motivator and because it's so far away I can look at the things I am doing now and see what I can change by then to give myself the best chance to be on that team.”

After an injury-disrupted start to 2024 due to a stress fracture in her back, Rio de Janeiro was Bond’s second junior world championships.

She said: “It was so good, so inspiring and really motivating coming home with the medals.

“It was nice to get that recognition and have that physical reward and representation of the hard work I have put in.”

Bond discovered diving while she was at primary school through watching her older siblings dive at Ponds Forge, home of the City of Sheffield Diving Club where she is now a member.

Sheffield has a great tradition of producing Olympics, from Britain’s first Olympic medallist Leon Taylor two decades ago to Freddie Woodward in Rio and then in Paris last summer, Yasmin Harper who won a bronze in the 3m synchro and Jordan Houlden who finished fifth.

Bond said: “When I was old enough I joined in and then when I started diving at 10m I wasn't scared of the height, I loved it, I loved the adrenaline, I loved the fun.

“And I was always better at the qualities you needed for platform diving than springboard diving so it just made sense.”

Bond said she prefers to listen to hype-up music in competitions, with Pitbull a personal favourite!

She has been coached by Tom Owens in Sheffield for eight years. Owens said: “Maisie is a fantastic young lady, she's very talented and working really hard to back that up.

“At Sheffield diving club she's part of a great team of Olympians, she trains alongside them and is learning from the best.”