Olympian's baby bliss LIZZIE'S DIVE INTO MOTHERHOOD

Pregnancy may have temporarily derailed her Games glory, but the diver's making a splash as a mum

-  Rebekah Hebenton

Kiwi Olympic diver Lizzie Cui can’t quite believe that this is her life. This time last year, she was supposed to be packing her bags and heading off to her second Olympic Games in Tokyo. Instead, she was back home in New Zealand getting ready to become a mum for the first time.

“I had to completely shift my priorities,” Lizzie, 24, tells the Weekly on Zoom from her home in the US, her baby daughter happily babbling away next to her. “I was focused on the Olympics and then I had to turn my energy to growing a baby. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Lizzie was only 17 when she qualified for her first Olympic Games in 2016 and was the first local diver in 24 years to compete in the prestigious competition.

Following her debut on the world stage, she won a scholarship to train and study at Louisiana State University in America, which she’s called home for the past six years.

In 2020, she was elated when she qualified for her second Olympic Games. But three months before the rescheduled event was due to take place, a visit to the doctor to check on an ovarian cyst changed everything.

Lizzie’s doctor made her take a pregnancy test to check if it was safe for her to go on medication and she was stunned when she got a positive result. A blood test confirmed the news.