In a shocking come-from-behind win at FINA’s World Championships, American divers Katrina Young and Delaney Schnell walked away with a second place finish and some hardware around their necks.
Going into the final dive of the day, Schnell and Young were sitting in fourth place, but they still had some work to do to earn a podium spot. Their last dive earned them a score of 70.08 putting them ahead of Malaysia’s Pandelela Pamg and Nur Dhabitah Sadri by just 0.72 points.
The win isn’t just admirable because of the effort it took to move from eighth to a podium spot, but because two-time Olympian Katrina Young wasn’t even supposed to be competing, let alone in a synchronized event.
Schnell’s partner withdrew from competitions just three weeks ago due to an injury. Having competed together previously, Schnell called on Young to see if she would step in and she gladly accepted the challenge.
“It was incredible. It was a pretty last-minute change. It was a lot of stress going into this event, but it worked out,” Young said. “I mean, it was tough. I’m not going to lie. We have a little bit of a different technique, but we were able to take the time and make it work.”
The American pair were in eighth place after two rounds, but began climbing the leaderboard after their next three optional dives. They jumped up to fifth after their front 3 ½ somersaults pike delivered 68.40 points and moved up one more spot after their inward 3 ½ somersaults tuck brought in 73.92 points.
Despite their position going into the final dive, the pair stayed composed. “Back twister is kind of my go-to dive so I honestly wasn’t too nervous. I knew that we had to fight if we wanted to even get close to the podium. Schnell said. “I was just happy that we could come back fighting and show that if you have a bad first dive, it doesn’t matter. You still have four more.”
Both women have had success with other partners in the past. Young achieved bronze with Murphy Bromberg at the 2019 World Championships in South Korea. Schnell won silver at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with Jessica Parratto, as well as winning bronze as an individual in the 10-meter at the 2019 World Championships.
Although the women are not typically paired together, you can’t help but wonder what these two women could accomplish together with more than three weeks of practice heading into a major event. Perhaps it is a pairing to be seen in the future.