DUE to a crop of injuries, Paris 2024 may have come a bit too early for Bingley diver Elizabeth Powley, but the 19-year-old has certainly set her sights on the 2028 Olympics, when the multi-sports extravaganza returns to Los Angeles for a third time.

Like many local divers, Powley’s first port of call, as a member of City of Bradford Esprit Diving Club was Shipley Pool, but, as countless others have done, she then switched affiliation to Leeds Diving Club.

“I started at Shipley when I was seven,” explained the teenager, “and did a few years there before I had to move to Leeds, and then I moved to Sheffield.

“I prefer springboard, but I also do highboard, though springboard has always been my calling as power is my thing.

“I won the English National Age Group Championships at one metre and three metre synchro, the Scottish National Age Group on platform and three metre and the Irish National Age Group Championships on one metre and three metre.”

Laughing, she added: “If they had had a Welsh Age Group National Championships I would have been there too.”

A travel enthusiast, it was a no-brainer for former Beckfoot School pupil Powley, who won the Amateur Sportswoman of the Year prize at the Bradford Sports Awards last month, to move across the pond to Atlanta last autumn.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Elizabeth Powley was back on home soil last month, as she had success at the Bradford Sports Awards.Elizabeth Powley was back on home soil last month, as she had success at the Bradford Sports Awards. (Image: Thomas Gadd.)

She said of her switch to Georgia Institute of Technology: “To move to America was an amazing opportunity - with how they balance school and athletics.

“I have just finished my first year, and it is big change and a lot (to deal with), but you learn so much about yourself, and then just having access to such amazing facilities and being part of such a big team is the best.

“We got a lot of people watching the competitions. In the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in February, the stands were full of parents, fans.

“You don’t expect such a fan-base for sports like diving and swimming but it is there.

“It is streamed live on ESPN and you have a lot of people watching, some of them famous sportspeople who randomly show up and you go ‘Ooh’, and that all adds a bit of pressure.

“Our men’s team did really well and our women’s team did better than they have done for quite a few years, and we scored a lot of points in the ACC Championships and we made a lot of steps in general, and the team culture just keeps getting better.”

Powley’s sixth place in the women’s one metre helped Georgia Tech move off the bottom of the table, and they finished the five-day event in grand style by winning the team event.

Immediately after the Bradford Sports Awards, Powley was off to the British Championships at Sandwell Aquatics Centre in Birmingham, where she finished ninth in the three-metre event, a decent effort given injuries might have meant that she was a little undercooked.

She said: “I am going to work really hard over the summer aiming for the National Championships in America next year.

“I am working more towards LA than Paris as I have had quite a few injuries, which I am working on, and I will be in a much better position in 2028.

“The list of injuries is quite long. I have had a lot of problems over the last three or four years with my shoulders, which kind of comes with the sport.

“I have had nerve problems and injections for that and knee issues, like my meniscus, because of jumping up and down so much and trying to fall off, but we are getting there, we are on the mend.”