Diving prodigy Tilly Brown is dreaming of Olympic glory as she prepares to build on last year’s European medal haul.

The 16-year-old added silver and bronze in the one and three meter Springboard Group B age category to the nine medals claimed by the next generation of British talent at the European Junior Diving Championships in Croatia.

Brown, who cites springboard history maker Grace Reid as her hero, heads to Southend for the British Elite Junior Diving Championships this month, hoping to secure her place in July’s Bucharest European Championships and December’s Junior World Championships.

Brown, one of over 50 of the most talented young British athletes supported by a partnership between the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and SportsAid, said: “We have the British Juniors coming up which is normally where selections for the Europeans and Worlds happen, but in the future my dream would be the Olympics.

“I feel everyone says that but it really is! The absolute dream would be Olympic gold but I’ve been diving for 10 years and just to be selected for the Olympics would be amazing.”

RBC, one of the largest banks in the world and a partner of SportsAid since 2014, provides the next generation of sports stars with financial assistance, recognition and personal development opportunities to help them fulfil their potential.

And since the partnership began, RBC has distributed more than 420 athlete awards with SportsAid.

The Southampton Diving Academy student is one of countless young athletes who have suffered from the cancelling of competitions and the closure of aquatics centres during the pandemic. 

She said: “I’ve been part of SportsAid for four years now, and it's really helped with transport because I live an hour and half from where I dive. It's a long journey pretty much every day.

“I’ve kept in contact with some of the girls I’ve met through SportsAid and it’s nice to see you’re not alone because we’re going through the same struggles in every sport right now."

As well as funding, SportsAid offers workshops on challenges such as interview technique for a select group of Britain’s rising athletics stars, with guest speakers including double gold medallist freestyle swimmer Rebecca Adlington.

Brown, whose sport represents one of 30 sporting disciplines covered by the RBC and SportsAid’s partnership and who was nominated to SportsAid by her sport’s national governing body, added: “It was great to meet Rebecca because she seemed really down to earth and humble. It’s a great opportunity and it has had enormous benefits for me.

“It’s very nice to be recognised and appreciated as well as meeting other athletes and finding out about their sport. I’m constantly thinking about diving, so I have no idea what canoer's do. It’s great to hear everyone else’s stories, and to explore deep into different sports.”

Royal Bank of Canada is proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. You can find out more by visiting https://www.rbccm.com/europe/.