Jamaican men’s team captain and diver, Yona Knight-Wisdom, narrowly missed advancing to the finals in his third Olympic appearance, finishing 13th in the men’s 3m springboard at the Centre Aquatique in northern Paris. The 29-year-old was on track to fulfill his ambition of reaching the final, holding a top 12 position throughout the first five rounds of the semi-final.
Despite consistently improving on his preliminary round scores for the same dives, Knight-Wisdom was edged out by Australian competitor and friend Kurtis Mathews, who surpassed his final total of 412.40 points. Knight-Wisdom led Mathews by 3.65 points going into their sixth and final dives, but was ultimately scored 8.40 points fewer by the panel of six judges.
Reflecting on his performance, Knight-Wisdom expressed mixed emotions, acknowledging the disappointment of finishing 13th while also taking pride in his strong finish. “Finishing 13th is the worst place to finish but I’m so proud that I finished with a really strong dive. I didn’t know where I was but knew I was in the mix,” he said. He also highlighted the progress he made from his preliminary round, where he scored 382.90 points.
“This is the best performance I have had in a semi-final — I was close in Rio and Tokyo but I made big mistakes in both which caused me to miss out, whereas here I feel like I did everything right, just dropped a fraction short with my fifth dive. To go over 400 points is what I was aiming for but it’s a shame there were just 12 better divers from me on the day,” Knight-Wisdom continued.
Acknowledging the possibility of being called as a reserve, Knight-Wisdom remained realistic about the unlikelihood of that happening. He confirmed his immediate retirement from competitive diving after a distinguished 13-year senior career, during which he became known for his exceptional talent despite his unusually tall stature for the sport.
“I’ve had some unbelievable experiences. I figured out what it takes to push yourself to the highest level in sport and hopefully inspired a lot of people to try and do the same. No matter what your size, body shape, who you are or where you come from, you can do whatever you want, providing you put the work in,” he reflected.
Looking forward, Knight-Wisdom expressed his commitment to developing a diving program in Jamaica and finding investment sponsorship to support it. “I’m definitely retiring and am happy that I finished with a strong confident series of dives. I’m heading straight for Jamaica now to try to develop a dive programme and hoping to find some investment sponsorship to help fund [it] to take it forward. It’s going to be a tough journey but I want to leave a legacy for Jamaica,” he affirmed.
Knight-Wisdom’s retirement marks the end of a remarkable career, and his future efforts in promoting diving in Jamaica promise to leave a lasting impact on the sport in his home country.
