Young diver overcomes adversity
Former Wellington diver Yu Qian Goh is aiming for the 2020 Olympics despite a significant disruption to her athletics scholarship in the United States.
Goh, 17, recently learned Clemson University would no longer host a diving team. The young athlete had spent the last six months studying architecture at the university in South Carolina.
The news was devastating to Goh and her 13 team-mates, all of whom were attending the college on an athletic scholarship.
‘‘The meeting lasted five minutes and when it ended everyone was in tears,’’ Goh said.
‘‘I was speechless, I was also crying. I called my parents at three o’clock in the morning. I was like, I don’t have a university or a diving team anymore.’’
Although the experience had been unpleasant, Goh had also learnt a lot from it. ‘‘It really highlighted how important diving was to me. ‘‘I went specifically to America to keep diving because it’s a really small sport here. It wasn’t really an option for me to stay [at Clemson].’’
Of the 14 girls, four decided to switch to another university so they could continue diving. Goh transferred her scholarship to the University of South Carolina (USC).
Goh is at university already after excelling academically at high school. She skipped year 10 to go straight into NCEA Level One in 2014.
She is a member of the New Zealand diving team and had hopes of representing New Zealand at the 2016 Olympics, but was unfortunately not selected.
‘‘It was always a goal of mine to go to the Olympics. Now it’s just made me push for 2020.’’
She believed the setbacks she has experienced may have been a ‘‘blessing in disguise’’ as her new diving coach has previously coached five Olympians and there was an Olympic diver in her new team.
‘‘I just have a really good feeling about it,’’ Goh said.
She had continued training alone after her previous team was disbanded and was looking forward to begin training in a team again.
‘‘It was so hard to stay motivated on my own, it was a strange environment.’’
Goh is staying with her family in Wellington before beginning at USC next semester.
She is unsure whether she will change her academic major to business or civil engineering as her new university does not offer architecture.
Although her future plans are still uncertain, one thing she is sure of is her passion for diving.
‘‘I don’t know when I’ll stop but I definitely want to see how far I can go.’’