The youngest athlete in NZ's Commonwealth Games team, 16-year-old Maggie Squire is ready to make a big splash in the diving world. And she has a "good mate" who'll be right beside her, mid-air.
With a four-year age gap and a significant difference in height, they’re an unlikely duo for synchronised diving.
But 16-year-old Maggie Squire and Frazer Tavener (20) make a great pair - called up to compete at their first Commonwealth Games after just a year diving together.
They've also become good mates, and are looking to follow the same path outside the pool, to become engineers.
Tavener and Squire will compete in the 3m mixed synchro in Birmingham - with the extremely technical event included on the diving programme for the first time at the Games.
Squire, who's the youngest athlete in New Zealand's Commonwealth Games team so far, loves the event despite its difficulty.
“It’s definitely a higher standard you have to dive to," she says. "I have to try really hard to jump so I can get to the same height as Frazer."
For Tavener, it’s often a case of using less power and height so their dives are perfectly synchronised. He can adjust the fulcrum on his board for the stiffness.
“I have to make the board really stiff when I’m doing synchro just to try and keep everything in time, keep the height the same and make sure we hit the water at the same time,” he says.
For such a recent pairing, Squire and Tavener gel very well together - both in diving and outside the sport.
“When we started doing it, we didn’t realise we’d actually be quite good at it. So it was a little bit of a surprise,” Squire laughs.
Tavener agrees. “We get along quite well, so it’s going to be fantastic to be able to share that experience with someone I’m good mates with.”
Squire and Tavener competing their mixed synchro dives at the national championships in May.
Squire, now in Year 12 at Takapuna Grammar School, has managed to balance diving with her academics, even doing Level 3 subjects this year in order to graduate a year early.
She’s hoping to study engineering next year (but considering a gap year first), after being inspired by Tavener, who’s studying part-time at Auckland University.
Tavener is full of praise for his quiet and modest diving partner.
“She is incredibly smart, really driven, both in diving and outside of diving. She’s also really kind to other people as well, really wants the best for other people,” he says.
Squire is competing in the 1m and 3m springboard in Birmingham - two events she recently won at the Diving New Zealand national championships.
She started making a splash on the world scene in late 2019, at the age of 14, in her first FINA Grand Prix events. In Kuala Lumpur she made the semifinals, finishing sixth in the 3m springboard.
Just as her senior diving career was taking off, Covid lockdown hit and Squire was limited to training over Zoom.
“It was definitely really difficult; those are some pretty big comps [the Grand Prix] and they were an amazing experience,” she says. “Having Covid come along right at that time really put a physical and mental block on the training I could do.”
When lockdown restrictions eased a little, Squire and her fellow Auckland divers could get out of the house and made use of what was available - jumping from backyard trampolines into pools, and even off the wharf at Murray's Bay on Auckland's North Shore.
Returning to training after all of Auckland's lockdown levels, Squire was quickly back to her world-class form.
“I just had even more love for the sport than I did before and it was just so exciting to be back," she says.
New Zealand are sending eight divers to Birmingham, the largest contingent of Kiwi divers ever selected for the Games.
Squire will be away from home and school for eight weeks - first to the world championships in Hungary in a fortnight, then a Grand Prix in Italy, followed by a training camp with the Australian diving team in the UK before the Commonwealth Games start at the end of July.
Luckily, they’re a tight-knit group. “Everyone going over with me I’m really close friends with," Squire says. "We train together every day so it’ll just be a really awesome trip.
“It’ll be really exciting to meet the other athletes in the New Zealand team [at the Games] and talk to them about what they do.”
Squire was recently awarded a FINA development scholarship, which will help her with the cost of travel and training for a year.
“It was really exciting news. It's really helpful having it there to know that I can go to these big competitions which will give me so much experience for the future,” she says.
Along with support from family, who drive her to training every day, Squire also has sponsorship from Mike Walczak and his company Signify which has helped her to compete overseas.
At the world champs in Hungary, Squire will compete in the open women’s 1m and 3m events, as well as the mixed synchro with Tavener. And she might team up for the platform synchro with 17-year-old Mikali Dawson, who’s competing in the 10m platform at Birmingham.
“It will be so amazing diving with all the top divers in the world, it’ll be so cool,” Squire says. It will be her first world champs.
“I’m definitely a little bit nervous because it is a huge opportunity. But I just want to go there and try my best and see how well I do.”
Despite her youth, Squire has been diving for around eight years; her promise first spotted by her swimming coach when she would dive at the start of a race.
“I definitely wasn’t the most naturally talented diver when I started, but after a lot of practise and the love of the sport, I started to get a lot better,” says Squire, who's been to national championships since she was 12.
Getting the call to say she was going to Birmingham was "super exciting", but also a weight off her chest after balancing diving and school for so long. “It was also a big relief after doing so many trials and competitions - that was a lot of hard work. It was just a relief to finally be like ‘Oh woah, I’ve made it’.”
While Squire’s plans for study and work next year are still up in the air, one thing for certain is her continued ascent through the diving ranks.
Tavener, who’s been diving for seven years, knows Squire has a bright future.
“It’s fantastic to be able to see someone four years younger than me stepping into the senior scene at the same time with so much potential,” he says.
“She’s going places for sure, coming in at such a young age and setting the bar so high. I’m excited to see the career she can make for herself.”
