From Tom Daley (GBR) to Oleksii Sereda (UKR): All the diving young talents come through Rome

The 2009 world championships in Rome crowned 15-year-old Great Britain's Tom Daley as the 10m platform world champion. His worthy heir is Ukrainian Oleksii Sereda, who has already stood on the second step of the podium twice at Roma 2022, in the 10m platform events, together with 15-year-old compatriot Kirill Boliukh in the men's synchronised event and with Sofiia Ljskun in the mixed synchronised one, after winning an individual gold at the European championships in Budapest 2021 in the same event. Despite his young age, the 16-year-old diver has got already a lot of experience and a career full of international podiums.

When he was 13 years old, Sereda competed in the 2019 European diving event in his hometown of Kiev, where he became European champion in the 10m platform event and also took the silver medal in the synchro one from the same height, together with teammate Oleh Serbin. A few months earlier he had participated in the world championships in Gwangju, finishing fourth behind China's Jian Yang and Hao Yang, and Russia's Aleksandr Bondar, thus qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where he finished sixth, below the Chinese stars, Britain's Tom Daley and the Russians.
"It is difficult to express what my feelings were at that moment. I was happy to have competed in the Olympics, but at the same time I was disappointed that I didn't get the gold medal. This is my dream for the future: to become an Olympic champion," Sereda said.

At Roma 2022 the Ukrainian diver is now aiming for gold in the men's 10m platform individual event on Sunday.

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