Ireland select Thackley diver for Olympic Games in Paris

The Bradford teenager was born in Ireland, and will be competing for his native country in the Male 3m Springboard event.

He and Ciara McGing (Female 10m Platform) were the only two divers selected to compete for Ireland, with the country’s full aquatics and swimming team announced last week.

Passmore is part of a 14-strong squad, with both he and McGing competing in their events between August 5 and August 8.

The 19-year-old has made the well-trodden path from City of Bradford Esprit Diving Club, who he joined when he was 10, to the City of Leeds Diving Club.

He won the Amateur Sportsman trophy in the Senior Achievers’ category at the Bradford Sports Awards in May at LIFE Centre Events in BD3, recognition for his sporting endeavours in West Yorkshire over the past decade.

Jake Passmore getting honoured at the 2024 Bradford Sports Awards. (Image: Thomas Gadd.)

But Ireland is where his allegiances lie, and he has already represented them in junior and senior World Championships.

Regardless of what happens at the Paris Olympics, Passmore has already created history by becoming the first diver from Ireland to win medals at the European and World junior championships.

He won silver in the one-metre springboard at the 2022 European Junior Championships in Otogeni, Romania, and bronze at the same event in the World Junior Championships in Montreal, Canada that November.

Passmore, a former pupil at Immanuel College who has shown interest in going to college in America, recently broke a national platform record that had stood for 12 years in the Irish Senior Championships in Dublin.

He was also the youngest competitor to reach the semi-finals in the Men’s 3m Springboard at the World Senior Championships in Doha, Qatar back in February.

Passmore and McGing will be coached by Marc Holdsworth out in Paris, while the diving squad’s team leader is Damian Ball.