My Account
Nine-year-old Holly Nutter of Arkles Bay admits that diving from a 5m high board can be scary at first – but says it is also great fun.
A background in gymnastics and dancing was good preparation for the precision and grace of diving, which Holly only took up 18 months ago.
In the recent North Island Championships she won two gold medals and a bronze. One of the golds was for her 5m platform dive – she was the youngest diver in that category and one of the youngest at the competition. Her dives included an armstand somersault, which she learned only a week before the event. She also came fifth in the 3m synchronized dive, competing against divers up to four years older.
Holly says she has also dived from the 10m board, but is not allowed to do that as yet in competition.
This month, on April 20-22, she will take part in her first national competition.
Her father Matthew says the accumulated costs of travelling to West Wave in Henderson three times a week for training, with Olympic coach Steve Gladding, as well as to Dunedin for the NZ Nationals in Dunedin, mount up.
Holly has a Make-A-Champ page makeachamp.com/hollynutter/profile, where anyone can support her.
