Junior LSU diver Lizzie Cui has not had to look far for success in the pool during her time at LSU.

Cui won silver in the three meter dive at SEC championships last year and finished fifth in the one meter dive during the NCAA championship in the season. She made history in 2016 by becoming the first diver to represent New Zealand in the Olympics since 1992.

This summer Cui continued her diving success by competing in the FINA Diving Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

“It was my second time competing in the world championships,” Cui said. “It was good. Coming off of a big season, Olympics and then college, it was a bit rough. Overall, it was really good.”

Cui represented New Zealand individually in the three meter and one meter dives and with a partner in the mixed three meter synchronized and the women’s three meter synchronized dive.

She finished 19th out of 42 divers in the one meter dive with a score of 241.50, falling just short of the top 12 finish necessary to make it to the final.

“The top 20 finish was definitely the ultimate goal of mine at the time,” Cui said. “So, it was really great to achieve that.”

Cui did make the finals for New Zealand in the mixed synchronized three meter dive with her partner Liam Stone, who is a diver for Tennessee.

Cui and Stone finished 12th with a score of 255.90, beating out teams from Mexico and Brazil.

Cui making finals in the synchronized dive stood out to LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer, since the SEC does not offer synchronized swimming.

“She had the opportunity to compete in a number of international competitions this summer, as an effort to prepare her for a qualification spot for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo” said Shaffer. “One of the events was the FINA world championships and she did a nice job there. It is the elite of the elite in a world championship.”

After the FINA world championships, Cui returned home to New Zealand for the first time since before she competed in the Olympics.

Cui said she enjoyed getting to see her family and her dog again, but she was somewhat surprised about her local fame.

“It was much needed to go home and get away from everything just for a couple of weeks,” said Cui. “I definitely felt more recognition at home, being the only Olympic diver, especially when I went back to my pool. The younger divers definitely admire having someone to look up to.”