KATE MILLER
Sport: Diving
Event: Women’s 10 m synchro & 10 m individual platform
Age: 19
Hometown: Ottawa
Residence: Montreal
Local Club: Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club
First Olympics
Instagram: @kate.miller20
VIEW KATE’S COMPETITION SCHEDULE HERE.
By Adam Beauchemin
In less than two years, Kate Miller has gone from a wide-eyed rookie who was in awe of Canada’s top divers, to a confident world-class athlete ready to make her Olympic debut alongside a veteran who’s become a sister.
The 19-year-old is set to compete alongside Calgary’s Caeli McKay in the women’s 10-metre platform synchronized event, and she’ll also take part in the individual 10 m competition a few days later in Paris.
“Training has been going really well and I’m just excited to really enjoy the experience of being there,” underlines Miller.
Miller started diving alongside the 25-year-old McKay in late 2022, and the two divers have made the most of their short time together. In 2023, the duo competed in their first World Aquatics Championships as partners and placed eighth in the 10 m synchro. The event was Miller’s first senior-level worlds, though she did previously win a 2022 world junior 3 m synchro gold with another teammate.
Miller and McKay later went on to win silver medals at the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile and both the 2023 and 2024 World Aquatics Diving World Cup Super Final.
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And the biggest result of the bunch came in February of this year when they placed sixth at the 2024 World Championships in Doha, Qatar to qualify for the Paris Games.
Read More: 18-year-old diver Kate Miller earns the Olympic berth she’s eyed since age 12
“We’re more of an experienced pair now,” Miller highlights. “We’ve been doing it for a year and a half — almost two years now.”
Miller says their year of heavy competition has helped them to identify weaknesses, refine their training and get into a competitive mindset. While her and McKay spend plenty of time together working on their trade, Miller says the relationship between the two divers goes beyond the platform.
“I think the dynamic between me and Caeli is almost like a sister bond,” she signals. “We can literally talk for hours, but then we can also sit in silence for hours. It’s a very good relationship.”
Miller notes that the pair’s ability to communicate and their willingness to accommodate one another has been crucial to the success of their partnership.
“I always like to take a deep breath before I go. So, she’ll stand there and let me have my time to take a deep breath, and then we go,” Miller outlines. “For her, one of her harder dives is the back twister. That’s kind of a scary dive for her, so I really don’t wait too long on that dive, just because I know she doesn’t want to waste any time on the board thinking about it.”
McKay competed in the Tokyo Olympics, where she placed fourth in the 10 m synchro event with her former partner Meaghan Benfeito, who won three medals at her two earlier Games.
Miller says McKay’s experience was especially valuable when the two first started competing together. She says her partner helped her stay focused while making her debut at the 2023 worlds.
“When I first started, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, these people are so good — it’s a whole different league out here,’” recounts Miller.
Nowadays, with several major competitions already under her belt, Miller is finding herself relying less on the experience of her partner.
“When I first started out, she was really helping me,” recalls the University of Southern California commit. “As the competitions have gone on, I’ve kind of found my own routine, my own rhythm, but also taking her advice within it.”
The biggest lesson Miller says she’s learned is the importance of mindset and mental clarity when it comes to competition.
“The mental game of diving is huge,” she indicates. “If you don’t know how to mentally control yourself, it’s usually not going to go the way you want it to. But, if you know how to stay composed and tell yourself you’re not going to let negative thoughts go through, you’re going to be okay.”
While Miller learned she would be attending the Olympics for the synchro events back in February, she only discovered that she would be participating in the individual competition in early July when Canada received confirmation of a second entry in the event. Miller got a surprise call from a Diving Canada official when she was in the middle of a practice with her teammates.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Miller noted in a Diving Canada announcement. “It was a memorable moment. We were all so happy. We were screaming.”
Miller has a smaller handful of senior individual competitions under her belt — including a 25th-place finish at the 2024 World Championships — so her goal is to focus on achieving consistency in her individual events while in Paris.
‘It just means the world’
As her Olympic dreams are set to come true, Miller says she’s especially looking forward to experiencing the grandiose Olympic village, and siting some of the world’s most celebrated athletes.
“Honestly, everything will be cool because it’s so new for me,” highlights the young athlete from Greely. “Experiencing something new for the first time is always super surreal.”
Miller took up diving when she was only six years old, wanting to emulate the acrobatics performed by a lifeguard one day when she was at the Walter Baker Sports Centre. She came up in the sport with the Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club, primarily out of the Nepean Sportsplex.
“That’s where I learned to love the sport,” she says. “Everyone who was at that club supported me throughout my journey. Every single moment, they were there for me.”
Miller’s journey to the Olympics wasn’t always easy. She says she made many sacrifices to maintain her commitment to the sport — among them was moving away from her family and her hometown. She spent her final two years of high school in Toronto at the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario, and then moved to the national team’s home in Montreal, where she and McKay now train together.
“It was really hard for me,” reflects the former St. Mark Catholic High School student. “But, moving away was a good decision for my diving. So, I’m happy I did do that because without it, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”
Now, after spending the bulk of her life devoted to her craft, getting to compete in her first Olympics comes as an extra sweet reward.
“It just means the world,” Miller underlines.
COMPETITION SCHEDULE:
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Awesome Article!!!!