In front of almost no crowd due to COVID-19 restrictions, Nathan Zsombor-Murray and his partner Vincent Riendeau performed in the men’s 10-metre synchronized final at the FINA Diving World Series in Tokyo, Japan.
The dive earned the pair from the West Island the bronze medal and more importantly, solidified their spot at the Tokyo Olympics.
“It’s always been something I’ve strived to accomplish since I was young and like actually qualifying is pretty unreal,” said the Pointe-Claire diver, Nathan Zsombor-Murray.
Even though the 18-year-old just qualified for the Olympics, the teenager still worries about graduating high school.
“It’s really quite stressful, I’ll be honest.”
The Grade 11 student in the Sport-Études program at John Rennie High School says managing his workload has been difficult, but credits his teachers who are eager to welcome him back.
“He’s gonna be I think a bit of a celebrity here when he returns, but he’s definitely doing very well and he’s very much on track to graduate with excellent marks,” said Sport-Études vice-principal Mathieu Larocque.
Zsombor-Murray was five years old when he was recruited by the Pointe-Claire Aquatic Club. His former coach, four-time Olympian Dave Bédard, discovered him when his dad was tossing the young boy in the air at a local outdoor pool.
“He was a natural from the get go, to that perspective that he just loved to be in the air and he loved to fly around and he loved that exciting sensational feeling,” said Bédard, who is currently the assistant head coach at the Pointe-Claire Diving Club.
Now, the teen is one of five athletes from the Pointe-Claire Aquatic Club to qualify for the games, which Bédard says speaks to the club’s high sports excellence.
“The atmosphere is wonderful for training sports. It’s relaxed but it’s understandably all about excellence, so you couldn’t ask for again a better situation to train in,” he said.
He hopes other children see the successful athletes coming out of the community, and encourages them to give the sport a try because he said, “We’re always looking for the next champions.”
Zsombor-Murray even grew up watching his partner Riendeau, who is a few years older than him, train with the same coaches at the same location.
“I got to sort of watch him growing up … and now I’m diving with him, so it was … really, really cool.”
The duo travels back to Montreal on Friday to prepare for the games. Zsombor-Murray is confident he can still qualify in a solo event. Over the past year, the diver told Global News, he’s had time to grow as an athlete.
“COVID is a little bit of a blessing in disguise,” he said. “It really sucked that they (the Olympics) got delayed by a year, but I think that it gave a lot of us a lot of time to really focus on ourselves.”
He just hopes COVID-19 doesn’t delay his Olympic debut. The summer games are set to start July 23 in Tokyo, Japan.