When looking at all the accolades that Juan Celaya-Hernandez has accomplished as a diver, one would assume that this was always the plan for him. Despite his 15 Male Diver of the Week awards and appearance in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, his introduction to the diving world happened simply by chance. 

Diving on a national stage wasn’t always the plan for Celaya-Hernandez. Growing up, he played other sports such as American Football and swimming before focusing on diving. Although he enjoyed playing them, he found himself getting bored of those sports and was looking for something more purposeful. Coincidentally, around this same time his sister started diving and the sport began to peak his interest. Eventually he gave it a try, and since then he hasn’t turned back.

“I was looking for something else,” Celaya-Hernandez said. “I joined diving, and apparently I was pretty good at it.” 

Hernandez’s path to being an olympian was a unique one. Coming from his hometown of San Nicolas de los Garza, Mexico, and moving to the U.S, he is no stranger to change. Celaya-Hernandez went from training about eight hours a day to only training five. While in Mexico, he would only compete in about 4 meets, but while diving in the U.S, he competed in three times as many meets. 

“Here I can practice more to be better,” Celaya-Hernandez said. “Working on my consistency in my dives and actually competing more because we didn’t have as many competitions back home.”

When COVID-19 spiked in many different areas around the world, it looked as if it would be a while before he would compete again. Celaya-Hernandez had been preparing to compete in the Olympics, but prior to this year, it didn’t look possible. 

“I was feeling a little down and depressed because my dream of competing in the Olympics was out of my reach and I couldn’t do anything about it,” Celaya-Hernandez said.

Fortunately for him and everyone else the Olympics did take place the following summer in 2021. He has plans to compete in two more Olympic games to complete his Olympic cycle. With Celaya-Hernandez being someone who has achieved a lot of success, he hopes winning an Olympic gold medal is another accolade he can add to that list.