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2025 World Championships

Maya Kelly Wins Bronze in Women's 20-Meter High Diving at World Aquatics Championships

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Podium photo of the women's 20-meter high diving medalists at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships

2025 World Aquatics Championships: Women's 20-meter high diving medalists - Gold, Rhiannan Iffland (Australia); Silver, Simone Leathead (Canada); Bronze, Maya Kelly (USA)

Maya Kelly (Lake Elmo, Minnesota) won the bronze medal in women’s 20-meter high diving on Saturday at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.

Kelly scored 310.00 points for bronze. Australia’s Rhiannan Iffland won her fifth World Championships gold with 359.25 points, and Simone Leathead of Canada scored 314.50 points for silver. USA’s Kaylea Arnett took fourth and Meili Carpenter was 11th.

“I’m super excited. I did not expect to get a bronze medal at all, so I tried not to put too much pressure on myself coming into today, but I think that helped me in the end. I’m just proud of myself for how I competed today,” Kelly said

I’m super excited. I did not expect to get a bronze medal at all, so I tried not to put too much pressure on myself coming into today, but I think that helped me in the end. I’m just proud of myself for how I competed today.
Maya Kelly with her 2025 World Championships bronze medal
Maya Kelly

The 18-year-old Kelly was competing in her first World Aquatics Championships and was the youngest competitor in the field. She was the first U.S. woman to medal in high diving at the World Championships since 2015.

“It’s my first year that I’m able to fully go off of the 20-meter platform. I’m in the senior age group, so I’m here with a lot of older and more experienced divers. It’s definitely been an experience being the youngest one here. Just learning from my fellow divers, it’s been a really cool experience,” Kelly said.

Divers performed four dives in the preliminaries on Thursday and Friday, with scores from two of those dives carrying over into the final. Kelly was sixth in the preliminary competition.

Kelly started Saturday’s final with 88.80 points on an armstand forward 2 ½ somersault with a half twist that moved her up to fifth place with one dive to go.

She closed out her competition with 90 points on an inward triple somersault with a half twist, enough to secure the bronze medal in her first World Aquatics Championships.

“I’m just glad that I showed what I could do. Mentally it is really hard, especially (with) the three-day competition schedule, so just putting out my best dives that I’ve done is really cool and I’m excited for the future,” Kelly said.

Arnett finished with 291.50 points for fourth, with Carpenter scoring 256.80 points for 11th place.

High diving at the World Aquatics Championships wraps up Sunday with the men’s 27-meter finals (11 p.m. ET on Saturday). USA’s James Lichtenstein, David Colturi and Scott Lazeroff all advanced. Competition will be streamed on Peacock.


Results