Filion screwed up, but rallied for gold
Roseline Filion buried her face deep into her hands. There was no elation emanating from her in that moment, minutes after the competition for the synchronized 10-metre platform diving competition at the Pan Am Games had ended. Just disappointment.
A reporter asked Filion about her third dive with teammate Meaghan Benfeito. Two of the five execution judges gave it a 5.5 out of 10. Both divers came to the same conclusion: Filion had messed up.
“I’m so pissed. I’m so mad at myself,” Filion said. “This week, it was going so well. I had a bit of trouble in training (Monday) morning. But in competition you can never rely on practice. I was still hopeful I could do well. I felt going down on the platform a little bit too quick. My speed was fast but I was very low. I was short on vertical and wasn’t able to get that rip, straight entry.”
“Rosie just cut down a little bit on her dive,” Benfeito added. “She didn’t quite make it around.”
They won the gold medal, by the way. Filion credited her partner with calming her down after her mistake, and the pair jumped from second to first with their fifth and final dive, the highest-scoring effort of the whole competition. And yes, the two divers were smiling, even if they were a bit self-critical, afterward.
Sometimes at these Games, there can be a tricky balance to walk. If the result is good, it should certainly be savoured. However, you also have to look at the broader picture, and the field of competition.
Not that this field was weak — the Mexican team of Paola Espinosa and Alejandra Orozco was one of the two teams that finished ahead of Benfeito and Filion at the Lon- don Olympics, when the Canadians won bronze. Here, the Mexicans won bronze, with the Brazilian team scoring a surprise silver.
Nonetheless, the focus for Benfeito is on the World Aquatics Championship, which starts in Russia later this month, and ultimately the Olympics next year in Rio de Janeiro. The goal for Filion and Benfeito — who won silver and bronze, respectively, in the individual competition on Saturday — is to approach their personal best. Monday’s performance was not that. Having competed together for a decade, the only worthy goal is to keep on improving.
“It is success. It’s a title that we were missing. We were never Pan Am champions before. It’s really something we wanted to achieve,” Filion said. The pair won silver in Guadalajara in 2011, with their only gold at a multi-sport event coming at the Commonwealth Games in 2014.