Cliff Diving
Molly Carlson lifts the lid on the raw reality of cliff diving
In an exclusive interview, Canadian cliff diver Molly Carlson opens up about the chilling near-miss that stunned watching fans and changed her outlook on the sport.
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After a minor miscalculation in the Philippines led to her hitting the water 23m below with full force, flat on her back, Molly Carlson knows more than most about dealing with fear. We caught up with the challenger for the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series crown to discover how she faces down the psychological demands of her sport time and time again.
01
Taking on Mother Nature
Molly Carlson dives in Mostar
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
Cliff diving is a gravity-defying blend of precision, power and pure courage, but what truly separates it from traditional competition is the environment.
Once an athlete climbs that final ladder and steps onto the platform, everything changes. The calm of training evaporates and the stage becomes a wild setting. It becomes unpredictable and deeply personal.
Carlson knows this feeling intimately. "It's just a whole different animal once you get up to that platform, whether it's wind or waves or rain or whatever it is," she says. In cliff diving, nature is never neutral.
One moment, it’s a swirling gust of wind that throws off your timing. The next, it’s crashing waves or pouring rain that challenge your footing, your focus and your nerve. There are no do-overs.
You either commit or you fall. Literally.
02
The cost of being human in a superhuman sport
That feeling after nailing a dive
© Ricardo Nascimento/Red Bull Content Pool
After a rough competition in the Philippines to kick off the 2025 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series season, where conditions rattled even the most experienced divers, Carlson made a decision. She started speaking more openly about just how brutal this sport can be, not in highlight reels, but in behind-the-scenes truths.
Because what fans often see from the shoreline or on live streams is only part of the picture.
“We watch it, and everyone looks like robots and everyone's fine,” she says. “And it's like, this is not a sport to be robotic. Like, you know, we are shitting ourselves, but no one knows it.”
Carlson dives in the Philippines
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
That moment of honesty revealed something deeper: beneath the sleek dives and confident smiles, even the best are scared. But that fear -- that white-knuckle vulnerability -- isn’t weakness.
It’s the cost of being human in a superhuman sport.
And yet, for Carlson, that’s part of the beauty. She’s learned to celebrate the courage it takes just to go through with the dive, especially when conditions are far from ideal. Sometimes, success isn’t about scores or medals. It’s about surviving the moment, coming out safe and showing up again tomorrow.
Because in this sport, the real competition isn’t just against other athletes. It’s against the wind, the waves, and most of all, the voice inside your own head.
03
From perfect training to a brutal reality check
What bravery looks like
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
With her confidence soaring, Carlson entered the 2025 season opener with a bold new mindset. She felt unstoppable.
“I was like, I’m going to win it,” she says. “That was the first time I felt that confident.” It wasn’t arrogance, but rather the quiet power of someone who’d done the work, physically and mentally, and was finally ready to own her moment.
But cliff diving is the kind of sport that doesn’t care how prepared you are.
It’s harsh, unpredictable and unforgiving. “In training, everything is perfect. Flat water, no wind, no birds flying in your face,” she says. “But then you show up to the comp, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, it’s 22.5m today. Just go for it.’” There’s no rehearsal, no warm-up jump. Just instinct, trust and gravity doing its thing.
On that opening day, something went wrong.
Carlson had to perform her normal 20m dive from 23m, and those three extra metres make a massive, massive difference. “That dive would’ve been perfect at home,” she says. “But here [in the Philippines]? Three metres too high. Flat on my back. It was brutal.”
The pain hit fast, but the emotional weight hit even harder. Her anxiety wasn’t waiting to see if she was OK – it went straight to self-blame. “I’d told everyone this was my season,” she says. “My community, my sponsors, even myself. And the first thing I thought wasn’t, ‘Am I OK?’ It was, ‘I’ve let everyone down.’ That sucks.”
And the first thing I thought wasn’t, ‘Am I OK?’ It was, ‘I’ve let everyone down.’ That sucks
But in true Carlson fashion, she got back up.
She climbed the platform, regrouped and nailed her next dive. She earned a score of six out of 10 – a solid recovery by any standard – but her internal dialogue didn’t let her celebrate. “All I could think was, ‘What is everyone going to think of me?’” she says. “Not, ‘Wow, I came back from a crash.’ Just… shame.”
It was a powerful reminder that confidence doesn’t make you immune to self-doubt and that bravery sometimes looks like showing up again, even when your narrative has already started to unravel.
Follow Molly in the video below as she takes you with her to cliff dive in the Philippines:
04
Finding family in the Brave Gang
There is a community in cliff diving
© Mauro Puccini/Red Bull Content Pool
What began as a simple hashtag and a small gesture of vulnerability has grown into something far more powerful. Today, the Brave Gang isn’t just a name stitched onto merch or captioned on Instagram.
It’s a lifeline, a digital family of over six and a half million people who have found courage in their shared humanity.
In the beginning, Carlson didn’t set out to build a community. At first, it was just about honesty and putting words to feelings that most athletes choose to bury. But the moment she opened up about her struggles with anxiety, perfectionism and fear, people started showing up.
I realised me and the Brave Gang all share one thing in common. Like, six and a half million people share fear in common
Not just fans or followers, but people who saw themselves in her story. People who were hungry for someone to say, “Me too.”
"I didn't realise that that is my new family until the Philippines," she says. "All I wanted was to connect with someone who understood, and I realised me and the Brave Gang all share one thing in common. Like, six and a half million people share fear in common."
That moment in the Philippines was raw, but it brought things into focus. It wasn’t about diving anymore, it was about connection. Cliff diving is a sport that isolates athletes on the edge of cliffs, and the Brave Gang became her safety net. They reminded her that vulnerability wasn’t weakness – it was strength.
And she wasn’t alone.
Each member of the Brave Gang brings something different. It could be a quiet fear, an unspoken battle or a story that still hurts to tell. Yet, in that diversity, there’s unity. Together, they’re rewriting what bravery looks like. It’s not just the person who wins but the one who shows up anyway.
When Carlson finds herself alone on the other side of the world she leans on the people who know her best. Her coach. Her team-mates. Her Brave Gang. The quiet support crew that catches her between the highs and lows.
"That's what I really lean on," she says. "My team-mates and my coach, who are on tour, and I’m like, OK… like, you can cry if you want to cry." Because that’s what the Brave Gang is really about.
It's about creating space. Space to cry. Space to rise. Space to be human and still fly.
05
Lessons from the off-season and season rhythm
When fear doesn't define you
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
The 2025 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series season has been unlike anything before. With only four stops on the calendar spread from April to October, the rhythm of competition feels entirely different.
There’s more time between events, which on the surface sounds like there's more space to rest, recover and reflect. In many ways, there is. But that extra time can also be confronting. When you're used to constant momentum, slowing down can leave room for self-doubt to creep in.
For Carlson, it’s meant sitting with the emotional aftermath of tough moments, like the crash in the Philippines, and finding new ways to rebuild her confidence between platforms.
"What’s hard is when you don’t get to sit with what happened, and you have to go into the next event and pretend like you’re fine," she says. "Now, at least, there’s space to actually process it. To go to therapy. To heal."
That kind of physical and mental healing has become just as crucial as training dives. With hyperextended knees still requiring care and the weight of expectations ever-present, Carlson has had to learn how to carry the pressure without letting it define her.
What’s hard is when you don’t get to sit with what happened, and you have to go into the next event and pretend like you’re fine
And the pressure is very real. Whether it’s media chatter, fan commentary, or internal expectations, being one of the top names in the sport comes with a constant spotlight. Her ongoing healthy rivalry with six-time World Series champion Rhiannan Iffland is often painted as a narrative of who's next and who will finally dethrone the queen.
But what the headlines miss is how disruptive that noise can be in the exact moment when absolute focus is needed.
"The hardest is when you are at the top and the media gets in your head," Carlson says. "You’re at these events, and they’re like, ‘Is she finally gonna beat Rhiannan Iffland this year?’ And they say that on the platform, as you’re literally ‘Three, two, one, go.’ And I’m just like, ‘Can the person on the mic shut up? Just give me 30 seconds, please.’"
The winners hold their trophies aloft
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
She’s learning to block out that noise, to filter what’s useful and let go of what’s not. The goal isn’t just about medals, it’s also about pride, and it’s about owning every second she’s in the air.
"This sport is wild," she says. "You have to be one of the bravest people in the world to do what we do, and I just want to get out there and be proud of every dive that I do. There might be 16 dives left, but make them the 16 most in-the-moment dives and do it for you."
In a season shaped by space between events, Carlson is discovering a new way forward and focusing on not diving to prove something, but diving to feel everything.
Watch as Carlson goes from practice dive to platform dive:
06
Redefining bravery: The athlete and person
Always looking for the positives
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
Bravery isn’t reserved for the edge of a 21m platform. It’s not about landing perfect tens or topping podiums. It’s about the quiet, often invisible battles and the moments no one sees that demand just as much courage as any dive.
Carlson's lived through both. The physical fear of returning to the platform after a hard crash, and the emotional fear of showing up in the world when anxiety, perfectionism or self-doubt are threatening to shut everything down.
"Molly the athlete and Molly the person have the same definition of bravery, and that’s simply overcoming something for you," she says. "And if you can simply be scared and do it anyway, that’s brave. Period."
Molly the athlete and Molly the person have the same definition of bravery, and that’s simply overcoming something for you
This philosophy has become her compass, guiding not just how she performs, but how she lives. Whether it’s pushing through the nerves before a dive, speaking openly about her mental health or choosing rest over burnout, every decision she makes is rooted in self-awareness and self-respect.
It’s not about appearing fearless, it’s about feeling the fear and doing it anyway. "The bravest thing I can do is show up as myself every day," she says. "And that’s what I’m gonna keep doing."
That bravery doesn’t end when she steps off the platform, it extends to the way she interacts with fans and to the stories she shares online. It extends to the way she supports others through their own struggles.
Molly Carlson, Rhiannan Iffland and Kaylea Arnett on the podium
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
Because bravery, as she sees it, is universal and contagious. When one person chooses honesty over perfection, it gives others permission to do the same.
Whether it’s a teenager facing body image issues, a young athlete crushed under pressure, or a stranger halfway across the world navigating anxiety, Carlson wants them all to know: you are not alone, and you don’t have to be fearless to be brave.
The real flex? Showing up as you are.
07
Advice to her younger self and the next generation
Molly Carlson lines up a dive in Polignano
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
Looking back, Carlson knows exactly how easy it is to lose yourself in the pressure to be perfect, especially when you’re young, talented and suddenly carrying the weight of a flag on your back.
"I actually almost quit diving when I was 12," she says. "The pressure started to get too much. I was on the national team for the first time, and I was like, oh my gosh, now I’m wearing the Maple Leaf. Like, this is serious. I need to be perfect for the rest of my life."
That moment could’ve ended everything.
The anxiety and the crushing belief that she had to have it all figured out nearly pushed her away from the sport she loved. But then her mom asked a simple question that cut through the noise: “Do you love diving?”
It reminded Carlson of why she started in the first place. It wasn't to win medals or impress coaches or chase perfection. It was because it brought her joy. That joy had been buried under years of people-pleasing and unrealistic expectations, and finding her way back to it became a lifelong commitment.
"Stop trying to please others," she says now, offering advice to the next generation. "I remember being 12 and needing to be perfect right away. And I’m like, that’s not how sport works. Period. You need to crash a bunch of times to then learn from it."
Failure is part of being brave
That mindset shift – from perfection to passion, from fear to self-kindness – is one of the most important lessons she’s ever learned. True bravery isn’t just about sticking the landing for Carlson.
It’s about giving yourself permission to fail.
"Failure is part of being brave," she says. "It’s about getting through that and being kind to yourself. So if everyone can just remember to follow their passions because they love it and not do it for other people, then you’re going to be successful and you’re going to be brave."
It’s a message rooted in experience and offered with love, because no matter how high the platform or how loud the crowd, Carlson’s legacy won’t be built on flawless dives.
It will be built on honesty, resilience and the courage to chase joy over perfection.
You can read the first part of this interview on Red Bull Canada right here.
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