SHAYE Boddington (31) who will represent her adopted nation New Zealand in the women’s three metre synchronised event at the Fina World Championships in Hungary later this year, thought her days as a diver were behind her after quitting the sport as a teen 13 years ago.
BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
Boddington was earmarked to compete at the 2004 Olympics in Athens for her adopted nation as a teenager before a rare illness forced her to give up the sport altogether at the age of 17.
Suffering from severe bulimia, Boddington recently recalled how she was vomiting up to 30 times a day and how her condition deteriorated to a state where despite being in the New Zealand Olympic team, she decided to give up the sport.
Bulimia is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder usually characterised by periods of binging – or excessive overeating – followed by purging.
Opening up for the first time on the ordeal in a television interview with Kiwi sports journalist Abby Wilson, Boddington said she had reached a point where she had to seek help or possibly die.
“It was pretty much look after yourself or potentially die, so I just had to make that call,” said Boddington, who represented Zimbabwe in various international diving competitions as a junior.
“Now as an adult when I look back, I realise I lost so much strength and mental function that I don’t even know how I got out of bed in the morning and later on go to that level of the sport again.
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The Zimbabwe-born diver said her two-year-old old daughter Hazel inspired her to make a comeback to diving after her recovery.
“I kind of thought one day if I tell her I used to be a diver, she wouldn’t believe me so I decided that let me go back to the pools and see if I can do anything.”
Now over 14 years after being tipped to become Zimbabwe diving’s own Kirsty Coventry before she left the country for New Zealand with her family, Boddington has an opportunity to complete a truly fairytale comeback later this year.
She is part of a four-member New Zealand team that includes United States-based Liam Stone, Anton Down-Jenkins and Elizabeth Cui selected for the championships which will be held from July 14-30 in Budapest, Hungary.
Boddington’s return to the sport provides another timely reminder of how diving, which has almost sunk into oblivion, had the potential to produce world class athletes in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe was until the turn of the millennium highly regarded among the top diving nations in the world but has been hard-hit by emigration and retirements, while the Zimbabwe Diving Board has ceased to function due to lack of funding.
Probably the most famous diver Zimbabwe has produced is Evan Stewart, who won a gold medal in the one-metre board event at the 1994 World Championships in Rome, Italy.
He also became the first African world champion in diving.
