Splash. That is the sound Elizabeth Roussel makes over and over again every day. She competed in her first Olympics in 2016 at just 18 years old, representing New Zealand in the 3m springboard event.

For the next step of her journey, she decided to continue her diving career at LSU. Now, she will compete in the 2024 Olympic Games, and for training Roussel went back to her collegiate roots.

“I am just trying to, you know, have fun with it, just to refine my skills so that I can peak at the Olympics and perform hopefully the best that I’ve ever performed,” Roussel said.

Now that she has a young daughter, Roussel’s training schedule looks a little different than it did before. She had her doubts at first, but the more she trained, the more she fell in love with diving  all over again. And there may be no better place to do it than the familiarity of the facilities at LSU.

“So I could only come to training really early in the morning,” Roussel said. “I would come, I’d wake up at 5:00, go work out at 5:15, then come straight to the pool, and I’d have to be wrapped up around 8:00 so I could go home for my husband to go to work and I could watch my daughter for the rest of the day.”

“So that was not traditional when you’re training. Nobody feels like their best at 6 to 8am in the morning so it was a lot.”

Roussel will represent New Zealand again in the 3m springboard event on August 7 in Paris, and fortunately for her, she has a community full of support in Baton Rouge.