Teenage European Games champion, Desharne Bent-Ashmeil aims to become the first black diver to represent Great Britain at the Olympics.
Desharne Bent-Ashmeil, is determined to rewrite history and break the unwanted statistic by becoming the first black diver to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“I used to feel like the odd one out as there weren’t any other black divers,” she tells BBC Sport.
“Now I feel it’s OK to be different, because you should feel unique and special, but I also want more people to feel like this is a sport for them.”
‘I wanted to dive, but I didn’t know how to swim!’
Hailing from Crystal Palace in south London, Bent-Ashmeil’s early aspirations were centered around gymnastics.
However, a chance encounter with a different sport completely transformed her life, leading her down a path that would ultimately become her passion and obsession.
“I’ve always dreamed of going to the Olympics, but I used to do gymnastics and had never even heard of diving,” says the 18-year-old.
“I was maybe 11 and was at the National Sports Centre watching my niece do gymnastics when I saw people diving for the first time.
“The pool was just opposite us and I thought it was amazing, so I told my mum I wanted to try it because of how much I loved sports.”
Bent-Ashmeil chuckles as she reminisces about that moment, sharing, “My mum was skeptical, saying, ‘Are you sure? You can’t swim.’ So, I quickly enrolled in swimming lessons.”
In just six months, she underwent an intensive “crash course” that equipped her with the necessary swimming skills to reach the edge of the pool after executing a dive.
With her newfound abilities, she was granted permission to train and compete in the sport she had grown passionate about.
‘Chlorine would damage my hair’
While pursuing gymnastics, Bent-Ashmeil held great admiration for world champion Beth Tweddle and even had the opportunity to attend training sessions with the Olympic bronze medallist. However, she found it challenging to find role models who shared her background and experiences.
The situation was not much different when she transitioned to diving.
However, witnessing Canadian Olympic medallist Jennifer Abel compete in prominent televised events provided Bent-Ashmeil with a glimmer of hope.
Seeing someone like Abel excel in the sport gave her inspiration and reinforced her belief that she too could make a significant impact in diving.
It was similar in diving, though seeing Canadian Olympic medallist Jennifer Abel competing in major televised events gave her hope.
“I always saw Jennifer and was like ‘oh my gosh, there’s a black diver on the world stage’ and I wanted to be like her,” she says.
“It was nice to have a role model because I did feel different around the pool when [other divers] would have conversations about their hair and I didn’t have that type.
“When I was younger, I just used to ‘relax my hair’, which is not great for it, and then mixing it with chlorine is quite damaging, so it would break off a lot.
“I’ve learned to always crease it now and put products on straight after training so that it doesn’t become weak.
“It’s little tips like that which I didn’t have, which I’d like to be able to share with other people.”
Paris potential and medal-winning possibilities
The first significant signs of the skills Bent-Ashmeil possessed came in 2019, when she became European junior champion on the 1m springboard and was named Diving England’s Talent Athlete of the Year.