Guest Speaker Olympian Melissa Wu

Members, Partners and Guests are welcome.

President Liz invites you to join us to hear Guest Speaker Olympian Diver Melissa Wu

Please RSVP by 12 noon on Monday 7 November via the Contact Us page – The dinner cost $23.00 and includes a 2-course dinner. Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements. Eftpos facilities are available.

Melissa started her diving career at 10 years of age. She relocated to Brisbane with her family a few years later where she was accepted into the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). She begun training under coach Xiangning Chen as was able to learn a senior list of dives from the 10 metre platform at the age of 13 after just one year in the program.

Wu defeated the reigning Olympic Gold and Bronze medalists to claim Gold in her first ever Australian Open Championships and qualified for her first Commonwealth Games at the age of 13. She teamed up with Alexandra Croak to win a Silver medal at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, despite her young age and the challenge of competing against much more experience teams.

In 2008 Melissa partnered with Briony Cole to claim a Silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, making her the youngest Australian diver in history to not only compete at an Olympic Games, but also the youngest Australian diver to win a medal. By the age of 16 Wu had medaled at every major international open competition as well as winning a Gold medal at Junior World Championships.

After the Olympics, Melissa began training in the senior squad under coach Hui Tong. She struggled with depression and enxiety for most of 2009 and feld she need a change to a more supportive program, so in 2010 she relocated from Brisbane to the NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) program in Sydney. She begun training under coach Chava Sobrino at NSWIS and also resumed her synchro partnership with Alexandra Croak. In the following years she medaled at the 2010 World Cup, 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, 2011 World Championships and multiple World Serier events before qualifying for her 2nd Olympic Games in London 2012 as well as her 3rd Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014.

In 2014 Nekussa’s younger sister Kirsten passed away and she took time away from diving to be with her family. She decided to return to the sport a few months later, which was a huge challenge both physically and mentally. Despite having to cope with the loss of her sister in 2014, We qualified for the 2015 World Championships in 3 events, was named the Australian Diving Team Captain, and came away with a Bronze in the mixed synchro event with Domonic Bedggood.