By Will Baxley on SwimSwam
Elite international high diving competition returned to U.S. in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida this weekend. It marked the first time America hosted a competition of this caliber since Fort Lauderdale hosted the World Cup in 2023. The weekend’s two events, the women’s 20m and men’s 27m, were headlined by both breakout moments for athletes on the world stage and seasoned veterans continuing a track record of excellence.
For 31-year-old Iris Schmidbauer of Germany, her gold medal win falls into the former category. The 2022 European Champion, Schmidbuaer had never won a medal on the world stage until today. She sat in second behind Swiss youngster Morgane Herculano after the penultimate round, setting herself up for the win on the last round as Herculano withdrew. Schmidbauer’s final score stood at 329.45, affording her a near nine-point lead over the next highest finisher.
Joining Schmidbauer on the podium were a pair of decorated North Americans: Canadian Molly Carson nabbed the silver, making it her fifth World Cup medal of the last six contested. Representing the red, white, and blue, Kaylea Arnett reaped bronze. Arnett and Carson traded places from the 2025 World Cup in Italy.
Nelli Chukanivska, who represents Ukraine and is 19 years old, missed out on a breakout medal by one place and less than a point. She was the youngest finisher in the top five by eight years.
Dominance is an understatement for the men’s winner Catalin-Petru Preda. His performance on Saturday resulted in a colossal 55-point margin above second base – despite only having a 3-point lead going into the final round. In the first round, Preda and his Romanian teammate Constantin Popovici duked out with Great Britain’s Aidan Heslop, all finishing within a point of each other and Heslop in the lead. The two Romanians pulled ahead in round two, with Preda moving into the lead and Heslop fading to third.
Preda then put up 152.5 points on his final dive to leave everybody else in the dust with a final score of 435.60. Popovici and Heslop ended up just out of the medals in 4th and 5th, respectively. Replacing them on the podium were Davide Baraldi (Italy) and Jonathan Paredes (Mexico). Baraldi’s 380.25 marked a personal best on the World Aquatics circuit and his first ever international medal. Notably, he was an entire decade younger than the rest of the top four at 24 years old. Paredes also had a milestone performance, as it was the decorated veteran’s first World Aquatics medal in the 2020s decade after being a consistent medalist throughout the 2010s.
As for 2025 World Champions Rhiannan Iffland and James Lichtenstein, neither were in attendance this weekend.
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