2024 Medalist Kayla Jensen Ready For Her Second World Junior Championships

It wasn’t your typical case of mom says no, so let’s ask dad.

For Kayla Jensen, it was more that mom may have had some initial hesitation. Dad’s response turned out to be the right one.

With her brother already trying several sports, Kayla’s parents told her she needed to find something to do as well.

When 4-year-old Kayla approached them about diving, mom wasn’t so sure. Dad had other ideas.

"We're at a public pool, and I was jumping off the diving board. I was like, ‘I want to do that.’ And my mom was like, ‘No, I don't think you can do that,” Jensen said. “But my dad was like, ‘Nope, nope. She can. She can do that.’ And so he found a club, and I started diving at it. A year or two later, he started coaching at it.”

The rest is history.

At the age of 10, Jensen won a pair of silver medals at the Junior Pan American Championships. Two years later, she won her first junior national titles and picked up a gold and bronze at another Junior Pan Am meet.

Now 17 – 13 years after she first jumped off that diving board – Jensen is a four-time junior national champion and ready to represent the United States at the World Aquatics Junior Diving Championships for a second time.

She’s one of six divers on this year’s squad who competed in Brazil at the 2024 World Junior Championships, and she’s the lone returning medalist from that group. Jensen won a silver medal on 1-meter and helped the United States win the gold medal in the mixed team event two years ago.

This year in Croatia, she’s looking forward to seeing old friends and is particularly excited about the competition venue, where she’s set to once again compete 1-meter and will also dive synchronized 3-meter with Ava Jolley, another returning team member.

"I'm just super excited. It's going to be so much fun. Their pool is so gorgeous. It's been my dream pool for so long, and I can't wait to just enjoy what I do and dive at such a gorgeous pool,” Jensen said.

Jensen is hopeful that her previous World Junior Championships experience will help prepare her for this year’s competition. And she knows she’s grown as a diver in the past two years.

“The overall experience of being in that environment is something that doesn't compare to any other meet. I think having that background going into it will help me stay more level-headed,” Jensen said. "I feel like I'm a completely different diver right now in terms of how I compete and how I carry myself and mindset wise, how I go into meets. It will be exciting to see how I do."

Since that first Junior Worlds in Brazil, Jensen has also benefitted from competing at the senior level. She was a finalist on 3-meter at both the USA Diving National Championships and Winter National Championships in 2025 and made her senior international debut at a World Aquatics recognized event in Italy last summer.

"It's helping me a lot just because at the senior meets everyone is so good. It's such a super exciting environment where everyone's hitting their dives and we have all these big dives. Every single meet feels more like a final because you don't have any voluntaries. It's just more experience in learning how to compete at levels like this," Jensen said.

Away from the pool, Jensen enjoys crafts, painting, hiking and exploring nature, but perhaps what she loves most is the feeling of a good dive.“The feeling of a really good dive, being on the board and being in the air, and just flipping, I think it's probably the best feeling ever,” said Jensen, whose favorite dive is a full out on 3-meter.

Here’s to experiencing that feeling many times in Croatia and for years to come.