HOUSTON – On Monday, synchronized diver and The Woodlands native Kassidy Cook officially qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics along with her diving partner, Sarah Bacon.
This marks Cook’s second time competing at the Olympics, as she previously competed solo in the 2016 Rio Olympics, finishing 13th in the women’s 3-meter springboard event.
However, this will be Bacon’s first Olympics, and will also be the first time the two have competed as a team at the Olympic level.
“There’s been a lot of hard work, lots of blood, sweat and tears put into this,” Cook said in an interview with KPRC 2 Sports Anchor Randy McIlvoy. “We’ve sacrificed a lot, and to see this dream finally come to fruition has just been really awesome.”
The road to the Olympics has been long and winding for both divers.
Cook nearly qualified for the 2012 team when she was a junior in high school, but missed the qualification requirements by half a point. Meanwhile, Bacon made it to the last set of Olympic trials, but fell just short of qualifying.
Additionally, Cook has struggled somewhat with injuries over the years, including a torn rotator cuff and stress fracture on her acromion that plagued her during trials for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
She says these kinds of injuries are normal for a sport as repetitive as diving, but that she’s been taking regular breaks and keeping up with physical therapy to make sure she’s ready for the upcoming competition.
“There’s a lot of stress when you’re going through the motions of diving thousands of times a week for decades,” Cook said. “The water isn’t gentle, and it can really take a toll on your body.”
But despite setbacks, both women have now successfully qualified for the Olympics, and they say they’re more than ready to give their all for Team USA.
“I’m so proud of Sarah. Seeing her come back and really perform at these trials was awesome,” Cook said. “Everyone knows that she deserves to be an Olympian, and to see it finally happen was incredible.”
Cook and Bacon go way back, originally meeting when they were just 10 years old and competing against each other in junior diving competitions.
Both of them competed solo for some time, but when Cook decided she wanted to take a shot at synchronized diving, she knew just who to contact. Cook sent Bacon a brief text and “the rest is history,” in her words.
The duo has been competing in 3-meter synchronized diving together for years now.
They feel like they have good chance of succeeding at the Olympics, especially since they previously won two silver medals and one gold medal at their most recent international competitions.
In terms of competition, the two have their work cut out for them, as they will be competing at the highest skill level possible. In particular, they expect the Chinese team to be stiff competition, but Cook says that she thinks they have what it takes to out-compete them.
As for the future, Cook says she’s not sure if this will be her last Olympics. At 29 years old, she’s slowly approaching the upper age limit of many Olympic athletes. However, she says she is still in excellent shape, so only time will tell.
“I’m going to take it one step at a time, but don’t count me out just yet.”