Australia’s Cassiel Rousseau won the gold medal in the Men’s 10-Metre Platform at the World Aquatics Championships 2023, becoming the first Australian to be crowned world champion in this event. 

22-year-old Rousseau rose to the occasion in Saturday’s final in which he was ranked ninth after his first dive. 

A Reverse 3 ½ Somersault Tuck performed as his third dive scored 91.60 points and catapulted him from sixth to second on the leaderboard.

His fourth dive, A Back 3 ½ Somersaults Pike, scored 95.40 points which solidified his second placing and edged the Queenslander to just 2.30 points behind the leader.

Rousseau moved into the lead after his fifth dive, but only by a margin of 1.05 points and with eight points between the top three divers with one round to go, there was no room for error.

His final dive, a Forward 4 ½ Somersaults Tuck was expertly executed and scored 98.05 points which confirmed his lead and world champion status.   

“I knew that I was going to come in first place before that final dive,” Rousseau said.

“To be honest I was not as nervous as I thought I would be with so much on the line. Rather than being nervous I was just excited by the realisation of the fact that I actually had the possibility of taking the gold medal.

“There is no big secret to my success today. Everything is a result of the high degree of effort and consistency that I put up in relation to my training,” he said.

Having made the switch to diving from gymnastics a little over five years’ ago, Rousseau said he was thrilled to get this result this early in his career.  

“I have no doubt that I have made leaps and bounds in my diving abilities since the last Olympics,” Rousseau said. “To get a gold medal so early in my career is just incredible,” he said.

In winning gold, Rousseau also denied China a clean sweep of diving gold medals at this even. Their athletes - Junjie Lian and Hao Yang - finished behind Rousseau in second and third positions. 

Even before Rousseau won gold, the final day of diving competition at the World Aquatics Championships 2023 proved to be Australia's most successful as Domonic Bedgood and Maddison Keeney won silver in the Mixed 3-Metre Springboard.

Keeney and Bedggood started Saturday’s final by performing a Back Dive Pike for which they scored 48 points and second position on the leaderboard. The pair remained in second position for the duration of the competition and their final dive, a Forward 2 ½ Somersault 2 Twists Pike, solidified their silver medal status.

They ultimately finished with a score of 307.38 which was 18.72 points behind gold medalists China, and 13.26 points ahead of bronze medalists Italy.

The result capped off a successful week in the pool for Keeney who finished fourth in the Women’s 3-Metre Springboard which secured Australia a quota position in this event to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Australia will leave the World Aquatics Championships 2023 with two quota spots to next year's Games, the second coming through Rousseau in the Men’s 10-Metre Platform. More opportunities to qualify diving quotas will come at the next instalment of the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, in February 2024.