MONTREAL — Molly Carlson can hardly believe her eyes when she looks out the window of her downtown Montreal home these days.
The Canadian high diver is used to travelling around the globe on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series and launching herself from extreme heights.
But this weekend, the circuit that began in 2009 will make its first appearance in Canada — with lofty platforms propped up in the heart of Carlson’s adopted city.
Montreal is hosting the tour’s sixth stop of the season at the Port of Montreal's Grand Quay. Competition begins Friday and goes through Sunday afternoon’s final along the St. Lawrence River.
“Why is this in my backyard?” Carlson said. “It doesn't feel like a real competition because we're at home.
“For Red Bull Cliff Diving to come to Canada for the first time is a dream come true. The country has never seen this kind of sport before."
The event is free, and organizers are expecting tens of thousands to watch in Montreal's Old Port.
Carlson, a two-time high diving silver medallist at the world championships, joined the Red Bull series in 2021 and quickly grew into one of the best cliff divers in the world.
She's also become a social media star with 3.9 million followers on TikTok, giving viewers a window into her life on the series and being open about mental health and dietary issues.
The 25-year-old from Thunder Bay, Ont., heads into this weekend's competition second in the women’s standings behind seven-time world champion Rhiannan Iffland of Australia. Carlson finished runner-up to Iffland in each of the last two seasons.
Fourth-ranked Simone Leathead of Montreal and wild card Aimee Harrison of Victoria, B.C., are the other Canadians on the women’s side, while wild card Charles-Antoine Labadie of Laval, Que., is set to compete in the men’s division.
The competition features 12 men and 12 women at each event. The men dive from 27 metres, the equivalent of nine stories, and the women jump from 21 metres, which is roughly seven.
Seeing the dives on video may be exciting but witnessing it in person is a whole other experience, said Diving Canada director of sport development Olivier Morneau-Ricard, who’s also a judge on the Red Bull series.
"When you watch it in person, it's 100 times more impressive,” he said. “It's someone going up nine floors at a hotel and looking down.
“They hit the water at approximately 90 kilometres per hour, so it's something crazy to watch.”
The divers reach such high speeds that landing feet-first is necessary to avoid serious injuries.
But injuries remain part of the sport, Carlson warned. Red Bull even hires scuba divers who wait in the water to help rescue athletes who don’t rise on their own after an attempt — something Carlson said happened twice recently.
"If you're two degrees off even, you're getting uppercutted by the water,” she said. “This is extreme, 80-kilometres-an-hour impact on your body that you're never going to go up if you don't feel ready to go up.”
Because of the nature of the sport, Carlson said she received endless comments about her bravery when she first started building a following on TikTok in 2021.
She used that to start a #BraveGang trend on social media — which has since turned into a company — to highlight how jumping from extreme heights isn’t the only way to be courageous.
“The first thing I said about it was, 'Please use this hashtag when you're sharing your own brave journey, because you're all brave,'” she said. “I was like, ‘I'll go first. The bravest thing I've ever done is open up about my mental health.’
“As soon as I said that, it was like this community exploded. It was almost like, ‘Wow, she jumps from 20 metres, but that's not the bravest thing she does.'”
Carlson said she’ll have over 100 friends and family attending the event this weekend, and at least as many people from her BraveGang community.
The plan is for everyone to be decked out in matching pink T-shirts.
“The shirt really just defines what the BraveGang is,” she said. “On the back, it's kind of like a definition, and it just reinstates that we're all brave and we're all here to support one another.
"I'll be wearing a pink bathing suit to match.”
The Red Bull series made stops in Greece, the United States, Italy, Northern Ireland and Norway before arriving in Canada this season. The final two stages will be in Turkey and Australia.
Morneau-Ricard, who created Canada’s high-diving program and recruited Carlson, said bringing the event to Montreal was a three-year process of making bids and getting various levels of government on board.
"It's a game changer," he said. “Especially for the development of the sport and development of our program."
Red Bull Cliff Diving director Hassan Mouti said Carlson isn’t the reason his series is now in Canada, but called it a definite plus.
"She's one of the best of the ambassadors for cliff diving,” he said. “She's not afraid to speak about diets, and she's not afraid to speak about her personal problems online and everything. So she's really open-minded.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 22, 2024.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
