Since she was a teenager, Émilie Heymans has shown she owns all the tools to be the best diver in the world. It all became reality last summer at the world championships in Barcelona when she won the gold medal on women's 10-metre tower, the first world title for a Canadian diver. (Alexandre Despatie would win a second gold on the men's tower a few days later).
The world title added more polish on an already impressive international record. She was the world junior tower champion in 1997, Pan Am Games champion in 1999 and earned silver at the 2000 Olympics in synchronized 10-metre with Anne Montminy. At those Games, Heymans placed fifth on the individual tower after one missed dive likely cost her the gold. She enters Athens with the toughest dive list in the world including the rarely executed reverse three-and-a-half which she can regularly nail for scores of 9.0's and 9.5's out of a possible 10.
Heymans‚ mother was a fencer for Belgium at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
