THE DIVER WHO WAS SCARED OF HEIGHTS
IN just four years Cassiel Rousseau has gone from being an acrobatic gymnast terrified of heights to one of the best 10m platform divers in Australia – earning a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics.
The 20-year-old Brisbane boy was an accomplished acrobatic gymnast, training with Robertson Gymnastics.
He won national titles, finished eighth in the 2016 Acrobatic World Championships and sixth in the World Games in 2017.
Four years ago Rousseau got his first taste of diving and he never looked back.
“My sister did a trial day for diving and Mum forced me to go to the trial,” Rousseau said.
“I hated heights. I honestly don’t know how I jumped off the board for the first time.
I just stood up there going, ‘I’m not doing this’, but once you start rotating in the air you get used to it.
“The fear disappeared, it was just all enjoyment.”
With acrobatic gymnastics not an Olympic sport and Rousseau getting too big to be thrown around he decided to make the switch to diving – he was 16-years-old.
Rousseau said it wasn’t the flips, tumbles and handstands he found the hardest to master.
“The hardest part was learning to pretty much land on your head, instead of your feet,” he said.
Just months after making the switch Rousseau stunned the diving community winning first in the 3m springboard and second in the 1m springboard at his first junior national competition.
He made his international debut at 18 at Calgary, competing in three events, including a fourth in the men’s 3m synchronised springboard with Matthew Carter.
In 2019 he finished ninth in the men’s 10m platform event at the FINA World Championships.
Now he is bound for Tokyo.
“It hasn’t really hit me yet that I’ve qualified, but I know once I get in the pool in Japan the excitement will come,” Rousseau said.
“I’d like to finish in the top 12 but the chance to compete
for Australia again is good enough for me.
“I don’t really like to focus on scores or any of that, I just go to enjoy it.”
It won’t be the first time a Rousseau has competed at the Olympics. The diver’s hero and grandfather Michel Rousseau won a gold medal for cycling at the Melbourne Olympics Games in 1956.
He said it would be “pretty cool” if he could bring home another one to add to the family trophy cabinet.