Arnett Wins 20-Meter Bronze at World Aquatics High Diving World Cup in Fort Lauderdale

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Kaylea Arnett won the bronze medal in women’s 20-meter high diving at the World Aquatics High Diving World Cup Stop One on Saturday. 

Arnett scored 310.30 points to win her third World Aquatics World Cup medal. Germany’s Iris Schmidbauer won gold with 329.45 points, and Canada’s Molly Carlson took silver at 320.50. 

Arnett also won a silver medal at a 2025 World Cup meet in Italy and took bronze at a 2024 World Cup in Bahrain. 
 
Arnett was in ninth place after the third of four rounds but she was fine with that. 

“I missed my third dive a little bit.  It
just wasn't very sharp. It was still 6.5, so it wasn’t a bad miss. But I also was treating this competition more like a practice.
This is the first big meet of the season, and we have a long season ahead of us. So I just wanted to take it easy. I didn't do any practice dives. 
I just wanted to save my body for the rest of the season, and I was just kind of treating this competition as the practice rounds,” Arnett said. 

Arnett brushed off the third round and finished her competition with 106.60 points on a reverse triple pike somersault to move to third place in the final standings. 

"Going into the last round, I always forget about the previous dives. Even if I missed it, it's over. It's done. It's time to move on in the next one, and I threw my reverse triple pike. This was the first one that I’ve done since September,” Arnett said. “And I also decided to not practice it and do it in the competition just to save my energy. And it was a great tactic, and it was a great takeoff. 
I've been working on my takeoffs in the offseason. The key for high diving is just about the takeoff. We've still got some things to sharpen up, but I'll take this competition as a good win.” 
 
 
USA’s Lisa Faulkner finished ninth with 289.95 points, and Izzi Mroz placed 11^th with 260.05.  

The 33-year-old Arnett is no stranger to the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center, and she once again enjoyed the atmosphere. As a diver, she won a bronze medal in synchronized 10-meter at a FINA Grand Prix meet in 2009.  
 
"I’ve been coming to Fort Lauderdale since I was 10 years old, the old school Fort Lauderdale. To now come here and see this amazing new facility, it’s grown with us, you know?” Arnett said. “It's beautiful, and I'm glad that we're able to move the sport forward and be on the beach. It's a different vibe coming to Fort Lauderdale.”   

In men’s 27-meter high diving, Romania’s Catalin-Petru Preda won gold with 435.60 points, and Italy’s Davide Baraldi took silver at 380.25. Mexico’s Jonathan Paredes rounded out the medalists with 371.60 points for bronze. 

Finals in the World Aquatics Junior High Diving Championships are set for Sunday.