As a result, the divers in Qatar will compete in the middle of a 12-month pressure chamber during which they will continue to face the unrelenting need to stay healthy, perform at their peak, and remain mentally sharp.

If anyone defends their 2023 world title in Doha in 2024 and goes on to win gold at the Paris Olympics this summer, it will mark a stunning feat of dominance and grace under constant fire.

Yet several athletes will try.  We’ve highlighted a few of them below.

At the same time, this will be the last chance for many athletes to earn Olympic berths for their nation in the eight disciplines contested at the Games. The only nation free from that challenge is China, which earned the right to enter the maximum number of athletes in each Olympic event at last year’s world championships. Instead, China’s mission in Doha will be to sweep gold in every discipline it enters – as it had for six years until Cassiel Rousseau of Australia snapped the streak by winning the men’s 10m gold medal at the Fukuoka world championships. Rousseau returns, too, along with these other stars:

Men’s 1m (non-Olympic)

Li Shixin of Australia has a fascinating story.  Li won back-to-back world titles for China on 1m (in 2011 and 2013). He  retired in 2014 and began coaching for Australia three years later. In 2019, he gained Australian citizenship, realized he was still in top form, and captured the 1m bronze for his new nation in 2022. He will compete on both 1m and 3m here and turn 36 a few days later. Several divers on the Australian squad say Li is a calm and guiding force on the team.

The defending gold medalist Peng Jianfeng won his second world title on 1m last year (to go with his 2017 gold) which gave China its ninth consecutive gold medal in men’s 1m. China hasn’t lost this event at the world championships since 2005 – thanks, in part to the Chinese-born Li.

Men’s 3m

Wang Zongyuan of China will aim for a three-peat in Doha after earning 3m gold in 2022 and 2023. Wang, 22, is a fantastic multi-tasker who earned silver in this event at the Tokyo Olympics as well as gold in synchro 3m.

But 19-year-old Osmar Olvera Ibarra of Mexico is on the rise. In Fukuoka, he claimed 3m silver, (splitting the two Chinese divers) with a list that ended with his three hardest dives, including the most difficult one of the contest (a forward 2 ½ with 3 twists). Olvera’s silver was the sixth medal for Mexico in Fukuoka – the country’s best diving performance in world championship history – second only to China in last year’s medal tally.

Men’s 10m

Last year, Cassiel Rousseau of Australia scored the ‘upset heard round the world’ when he won the  men’s 10m gold in the final men’s final at Fukuoka and handed China its first loss at a world championship since 2017. The cool, stylish, and tattooed 22-year-old from Brisbane said “I was not as nervous as I thought I would be” before this last dive.

At press time, it wasn’t clear whether China would send its 2023 world silver medalist and runner-up to Rousseau, Lian Junjie, or whether the Tokyo Olympic champion on 10m, Cao Yuan, would return for Doha. Cao did not compete in AQUA events last year and will turn 29 on February 7. 

Women’s 1m (non-Olympic)

On the women’s side, if China’s Lin Shan and Li Yajie both compete in Doha, this could be the beginning of a budding rivalry. Lin is the 2023 world champion and Li was the 2022 world champion. Only 12.25 points separated them in Fukuoka. 

But keep an eye on Pamela Ware who earned one of Canada’s two diving medals at the 2023 world championships. Although her bronze came on 3m, she was only 65-hundredths of a point away from the 1m bronze as well. Fukuoka marked sweet redemption for the two-time Olympian after she uncharacteristically scored zero on a dive in the 3m semifinal at the Tokyo Olympics.  She will turn 31 on February 12.

Women’s 3m

An all-China battle is expected to continue in women’s 3m between the defending world champion and 2023 Super Final winner Chen Yiwen (who will vie for a three-peat in Doha) and Chang Yani (who claimed world bronze in 2022 and silver in 2023). Chen said she has always wanted to top 400 points at the world championships or the Olympics, but last year in Fukuoka, after an average first dive, she admitted to “thinking too much [and] trying to win too hard.” 

Meanwhile, Japan’s Sayaka Mikami has spent six years trying to perfect the hardest dive in women’s 3m springboard: 2½ somersaults with two twists (with a 3.4 degree of difficulty). Mikami’s extra twist could twist the plot in Doha, as she nearly upset Chen at the Super Final in Berlin in August, only to finish second by a narrow 1.55 points.

Women’s 10m

Already a three-time world champion on the women’s 10m platform, Chen Yuxi of China will try to make it 4-for-4 in Doha – if she can beat her teammate, the reigning Olympic champion Quan Hongchan. The competition is so fierce between the 18-year-old Chen and 16-year-old Quan that not even a perfect dive by the younger Quan (which scored 10.0s from all seven judges in Fukuoka) was enough to topple Chen from her throne. 

The level of perfection in this event is staggering, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else eclipsing the exquisite execution by these two teenagers.