For Ellie Smart, it was love at first leap. In 2016, a friend invited her to go cliff jumping at McCloud Falls in Northern California. Smart had just finished a fashion internship in Barcelona and hiking to a waterfall wasn't appealing. "I was in girly-girl mode and I was like, this is so stupid," she laughs.
Thankfully, she changed her mind. An accomplished 10-meter platform diver, Smart began competing at age 12 and dreamed of the Olympics. But after two years diving at UC Berkeley, she felt like she was done. "When I jumped off my first cliff, I felt like this was what I was supposed to be doing my entire life," she says.
Now 27, Smart made her Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series debut in 2017. In 2019 she joined the series full-time and finished second at Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And 2022 was her best year yet, as she nabbed third place overall in the series. Away from the podium she founded the International High Diving Institute, which partnered with Utah's Olympic Park to build North America's first-ever high-dive platform in 2021.
No doubt, that first leap changed her life. "As a younger athlete I wanted to go to the Olympics and be the best," Smart says. "But I didn't get joy from beating other people. I've defined 'winning' in a very different way now."
MENTAL TRAINING
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