European Aquatics Athlete of the Year Awards 2025: women’s high diving nominees
European Aquatics has announced the nominees for the women’s high diving athlete of the year, which consists of group of athletes who helped define a year of steady progress, growing confidence and increasing depth for the discipline across the continent.
As pathways continue to expand ahead of the European Aquatics Championships 2026 in Paris and the introduction of the European Aquatics Junior High Diving Championships in Budapest, the shortlist reflects a season that confirmed European women’s high diving as a discipline firmly on the rise.
The 2025 campaign marked another important step forward. Across the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, the sole World Aquatics High Diving World Cup stop at Porto Flavia and the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, Europe’s leading female athletes consistently held their own in some of the strongest fields seen in recent years. A;though the overall accolades were taken by athletes from beyond the continent, Europe’s athletes continued to show why the discipline is one to watch going forwards.
The Netherlands’ Ginni van Katwijk headlines the shortlist after another impressive year on the world stage. At the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, she delivered a composed and confident performance to finish sixth, and also as the highest-placing European.
Van Katwijk backed that up with further strong showings across the season, including a further sixth-place finish at the Porto Flavia World Cup stop and a series of consistent performances in the Red Bull Cliff Diving Series, where she remained firmly in the mix against an increasingly competitive field.
Italy’s Elisa Cosetti is nominated following a season that mirrored her growing experience at the elite level. In Singapore, she replicated her 2024 form with an eighth-place finish at the World Championships, once again demonstrating her ability to deliver under pressure in major finals.
Cosetti also remained a regular presence among Europe’s leading athletes throughout the year, finishing inside the top ten at the Red Bull series and contributing to the continent’s strong overall showing.
Switzerland’s Morgane Herculano earns her nomination after a season that underlined her upward trajectory. She finished 12th at the World Aquatics Championships and was a central figure in Europe’s challenge at the Porto Flavia World Cup stop, where she edged a tightly contested battle with van Katwijk to finish fifth overall.
Her performances across 2025 reflected increasing confidence and an ability to push towards the front of high-quality international fields, as she also showed with a number of competitive results in the Red Bull series,
France’s Madeleine Bayon is recognised following her appearance at the World Championships, where she placed 14th in Singapore. Competing in one of the deepest women’s fields in recent memory, Bayon’s performance was another indication of the growing breadth of European representation at the highest level, with athletes gaining valuable experience in championship conditions.
Having only recently made the move from gymnastics to the discipline, the 28-year-old also became the first French woman to compete in the Red Bull series, finishing sixteenth.
Germany’s Iris Schmidbauer completes the shortlist after finishing 15th at the World Aquatics Championships. Her presence among the world’s leading divers in Singapore further highlighted the expanding footprint of European women’s high diving and the increasing number of athletes capable of qualifying for and competing in major finals.
She also made a good account of herself in the other competitions, with eleventh and twelfth-place finishes at the World Cup and Red Bull series respectively.
Click here to see the nominees for all categories and to vote for your winner.
Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics
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