Melissa Wu

Melissa Wu will join an exclusive club when she competes at Paris 2024 – becoming one of just a handful of Australian athletes to go to five Olympics, and the only diver.
Sydneysider Melissa has been on every Australian Olympic Team since Beijing in 2008.

But she actually began her career in diving in 2003, when she was 10. After winning a range of junior and state titles throughout 2004 and 2005, Melissa was given the opportunity to compete at the 2006 Australian Open Championships. Here, she won the women’s 10m platform event, earning herself a spot on the Australian Commonwealth Games team.

At just 13-years-old, Melissa burst onto the international diving scene when she walked away with a Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games silver medal in the 10m synchronised diving alongside Alexandra Croak. In the individual 10m platform she finished in fifth place.

Two years later, Melissa was off to her debut Olympic Games in Beijing, China. The then 16-year-old competed alongside Briony Cole in the women’s 10m synchronised diving, where they finished in second place, making Melissa the youngest Australian to ever win an Olympic medal in diving. This was also Australia’s best-ever result in synchronised diving.

The Sydney local continued to progress in the sport and in 2010 competed in her second Commonwealth Games. Once again partnered with Alexandra Croak, the duo claimed the gold medal in the women’s 10m synchro in India. Melissa also claimed silver in the women’s individual 10m platform.

At her second Olympic Games in London 2012 she progressed to the Olympic final in the 10m platform event, where she fell agonisingly short of the podium and finished in fourth.

As a member of the NSW Institute of Sport, training under head coach Chava Sobrino, Melissa went on to compete at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games where she finished fifth. She continued her medal success winning bronze at the 2014 and 2016 World Cups in Shanghai and Rio, amongst many others.

The seasoned athlete made her third Olympic Team in Rio 2016, where she was also named Australian Diving captain. She placed fifth in the 10m platform (368.30 points) in a hotly contested final which was dominated by China.

In 2018, Melissa achieved a career best individual performance when she won gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in the women’s 10m platform.

Having won more than 60 medals since her international debut, Melissa has certainly made a name for herself as one of the most successful divers in Australian history.

After winning the 2021 Australian Open Championships, the current national champion set her sights on her fourth Olympic Games.

13 years after she won an Olympic silver medal on debut at the Beijing Olympics, Melissa returned to the Olympic podium in Tokyo after a textbook performance in the final of the women’s 10m platform earned a bronze medal.

Her opening dive in the final – forward three-and-a-half pike – put her in fourth position with five dives to go. She moved into third position, where she remained for the rest of the competition, after performing a well-executed back handstand double somersault with one-and-a-half twists on her second dive.

Heading into the final dive, Melissa had a six-and-a-half-point lead over Mexico's Gabriela Angundez Garcia. In winning bronze, the four-time Olympian showed experience and composure by scoring 81.60 on her final dive, a back two-and-a-half somersault with one-and-a-half twists pike.

Melissa battled a series of injuries after Tokyo, particularly with her back, but refused to give up on her dream of a fifth Olympics.

She was given the honour of carrying Australia’s flag at the closing ceremony of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in recognition of her fifth appearance at those Games, a record for an Australian diver. In Birmingham, she won gold in the women’s 10m synchronised with Charli Petrov and was sixth in mixed 10m synchronised with Domonic Bedggood.

At the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Melissa finished the 10m women’s platform semi-final in eighth place and the final in 12th – earning Australia a second quota spot in that event for the Paris Olympics.

She nailed down her place in Paris when she was crowned women’s 10-metre platform champion at the Australian titles in Adelaide, in June 2024.

She overcame strong performances from teenager Ellie Cole and Queensland star Emily Meaney to win the title.

“I had a lot of nerves heading into this event,” Melissa said. “I always get super nervous when I compete and have done so from a young age, but I think all the work I’ve put in over the years with the mindset and experiences I’ve had, I’ve learnt to deal with that a little better now.”

Outside of the pool, Melissa regularly trains in weightlifting under the tutelage of her brother, and has competed in a few weightlifting competitions, including two state level events. While weightlifting seems a far departure from diving, she credits the extra training in aiding in injury prevention and power development.