15-year-old diver Ella Lindsay springs to 5 gold medals at home provincials to launch into senior nationals

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By Isabella Disley

Ella Lindsay flew to the top of the podium five times at the Dive Ontario Summer Provincials and less than 12 hours later, the Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club athlete was jumping on a flight bound for Saskatoon and Diving Canada’s Summer Senior National Championships with her coach Fernando Henderson.

The 15-year-old was the star performer of the meet and for her hometown club at the May 16-18 provincials, winning half of her events by a commanding margin of over 25 points. Lindsay earned gold medals in five of her six events in Group A (under-19) and open women’s 1-metre, 3 m and platform competitions, plus a bronze in open 1 m.

“I really love attending provincials like this one, especially at my home pool,” Lindsay tells the Ottawa Sports Pages at the Nepean Sportsplex. “I get to see all my friends and family come to support me. I’ve made a whole bunch of friends. Diving is such a great community, and I’m really glad to spend time with the community.”

Lindsay, who has represented Canada at multiple international events in recent years, was first drawn into the sport at age seven while watching the Rio 2016 Olympics on TV. She was in gymnastics at the time, but the art of diving left her fascinated.

So her mom looked up where she could dive in town, and she’s kept rising at NODC ever since. Henderson was impressed by Lindsay’s work ethic and demeanour from the get-go.

“She is an amazing young girl,” highlights the past Olympic diver who competed for his native Dominican Republic at the L.A. 1984 Games. “She trains hard, she doesn’t skip any of the dryland training. She does every exercise, every skill on the trampoline, she doesn’t cheat. She actually asks for more. She’s quite wonderful and staying on time, too.

“At practice, she is not the type that will try to look for the easiest way, and she’s one of the few kids who always completes her training for the day.”

In April of last year, Lindsay competed at the Dresden International Youth Diving Meet in Germany, bringing home bronze medals in both the Group B (U16) platform and 3 m springboard events.

Last summer, she earned U16 junior national medals of every colour – platform gold, 1 m silver and 3 m bronze and was selected to Team Canada for the 2024 World Aquatics Junior Diving Championships.

Lindsay travelled to the event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil eight years after Rio’s Olympics pulled her into diving, but was ultimately unable to compete due to an injury sustained in training.

A healthy Lindsay earned a return trip to Dresden this year and she won a bronze medal in her debut U19 international event, landing just six points short of first place with her platform score of 374.85.

“It feels amazing. It’s such an honour,” Lindsay says of representing her country. “I’ve worked really hard to achieve and get to compete at these competitions, and I really hope I make myself proud, and I really look forward to competing on the international stage.”

Back at home, Lindsay has become a role model for younger athletes, and even those she is competing against.

“All the kids look up to her,” Henderson indicates. “She’s so nice that all the divers from other teams or even coaches love her because she’s so sweet, she’s so nice.

“She’s a very skilled, very talented girl, physically and mentally. She’s quiet and shy and timid, but she holds it inside.”

At this weekend’s Canadian senior summer championships, Lindsay plans to compete in all three events. She made her senior national debut last season in Windsor when she qualified for the 1 m competition (which is not contested at world championships or Olympics). This time she’ll be competing alongside one of her own role models in the the 10 m event – fellow NODC product Kate Miller.

“(Kate Miller) is a Canadian Olympian, and she actually started diving at our club as well, here in Ottawa,” Lindsay notes. “We were friends when she was here, and she moved away shortly after to continue training, but she’s been a huge inspiration for me.”

There was another local champion at the summer provincials as well. Julia Read from the host Ottawa National Diving Club scored a giant victory of her own in the Group B (U16) girls’ platform event. Read won the tower competition by over 25 points with her score of 273.60, and she also took bronze in the Group B 1 m event.

Rafael Serey-Cormier, a past NODC diver who now trains out of Gatineau, collected four medals at the provincials – silver for open men’s platform and Group A (U19) 1 m, and bronze for open men’s 1 m and Group A platform.

NODC’s Owen Dansereau earned bronze in the boys’ Group B (U16) 3 m, while ONDC’s Olivier Caron took bronze in boys’ Group B 3 m.

Ottawa Sports Pages Weekend Wrap

Ottawa athletes made their mark at several other national sports events on the Victoria Day long weekend, particularly in Alberta.

Kristen Pearn of the CanAm Barbell Club was the runner-up in the women’s 77-kilogram competition at the Canadian Weightlifting Championships in Calgary. Pearn was third in the snatch and second in clean and jerk to earn the combined silver medal position.

The Central Canada Hockey League-champion Rockland Nationals lost 3-2 in overtime to the hometown Calgary Canucks in the national junior ‘A’ men’s hockey semifinals to end their run at the Centennial Cup. Rockland had beaten the Northern Manitoba Blizzard 4-0 the previous night in the quarterfinals.

And the Ontario 17U boys’ silver-medallist Ottawa Maverick Rangers placed fourth at the Volleyball Canada nationals in Edmonton. The Mavs won five matches to reach the semis before falling to their provincial-champion nemesis, Toronto’s Pakmen Gold.

In international women’s rugby, University of Ottawa Gee-Gees product Claire Gallagher was involved in the try-scoring passing sequence that gave Canada a 27-27 tie on the road in New Zealand in Pacific Four Series play. Fellow former Gee-Gees Alysia Comtois and Alexandria Ellis are also on Canada’s Pacific Four Series roster but did not appear in the match.

Ottawa’s Vanessa Gilles will soon having a new soccer club home in Germany. Currently playing in Lyon, the 29-year-old centre back who won Olympic gold with Canada at the Tokyo Games in 2021 will join Bayern Munich this summer after her transfer was finalized.