Mankey making hard work count with each dive
Matthew Klingenberger
Sports Reporter Decatur Daily Democrat
Diving is a sport that is about perfection.
Within each dive is a series of moves, so fast and subtle that some may not realize their complexity or their significance.
Add in all of the fans watching, and it becomes easy to see why the sport is so difficult.
But Decatur diver Mason Mankey does not look at it that way. He prefers to enjoy the moment, not overthink it and let everything play out the way it is intended to.
“I definitely get nervous,” Mankey acknowledged. “But I just remember there’s something bigger than me and that there’s something bigger that God has for me.”
That perspective has helped Mankey out tremendously.
A 2022 Junior World Championship qualifier, Mankey believes that diving is “98% mental and 2% physical.”
Reaching the heights he has in his career is evidence that Mankey excels in both areas.
As one would expect, getting to the top is a challenging endeavor that requires countless hours of hard work and dedication. In order to execute each dive as cleanly as possible, Mankey has a training regiment that is centered around repetition and instruction.
“There’s a lot of drills that are involved,” Mankey said when explaining his practice routine. “You go off the board, then you get a correction from your coach, and then you try to implement that on the next dive.”
For some athletes, the amount of time required can cause them to shy away from their sport. Mankey, however, has ambitions of taking his sport to the next level.
He has a desire to dive in college, preferably at a school in Indiana.
Beyond his long-term goals, Mankey credits those around him for making his day-today experience in diving enjoyable.
When discussing some of his favorite aspects of diving, Mankey said, “I just feel like the people you’re around make it fun. My teammates and my coaches, they just make it fun.”
He continued, “I think that’s why I stuck with diving for as long as I have, because I have people at my place to encourage me and support me, and that’s what makes me want to go back the next day.”
When sharing his favorite diving memory so far, Mankey, who desires to go into the medical field one day, recounts a story from the 2022 Junior Nationals.
“2022, Junior Nationals are in Midland, Texas,” he recalled. “It was a three-meter event, and I did a reverse two and a half on three meter and tuck (a dive that requires the diver to complete two and a half somersaults before entering the water).”
“It was just one of my favorite memories because I came up and everyone was screaming because it was the second to last round.”
He told the story of how qualification to the Junior World Championships came down to the last dive with him trailing in the competition. Those finals were held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
His opponent did “his dive, and he doesn’t perform it to the best of his abilities, and I end up getting second and qualifying for junior worlds,” Mankey said.
Mankey credits his grandfather for playing a huge role in inspiring him to take up diving.
He added that his favorite professional diver is David Boudia, the former Purdue athlete who won a gold medal for the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Mankey has a gymnastics background. He believes the skill sets for both sports are similar, but that the mechanics are different.
Even with the difficulties that are associated with diving, it is clear, not just through his accomplishments, but also his mindset, that Mason Mankey has what it takes to keep going with what has already been an exceptional career.