High Diving
Top Marks
Ellie Smart shares how she conquered her fear of heights to become an elite cliff diver—and now she’s helping others unlock that ability, too.
Think “cliff diving” and Boston Harbor is not the first place that springs to mind. Think “cliff diver” and you may conjure a fearless adrenaline junkie, not someone who dislikes heights. But when the 2022 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series kicks off on June 4, it will be in Beantown, and Ellie Smart, the sole American on the team, happens to be afraid of heights. “Believe it or not,” laughs the 26-year-old.
But it’s no joke; cliff divers routinely leap from heights of up to 27 meters (about 90 feet). This unexpected duality begs the question: How does an athlete who dislikes heights become a professional cliff diver? The answer—pure grit.
Smart’s journey traces back to Kansas.
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
When I hit the water and accomplished this thing I didn’t think I was capable of, I felt I could do anything.
Smart’s journey traces back to Kansas, where she was a little girl with a big Olympic dream: to compete in the 10-meter platform event, a goal she pursued through years of training, landing at UC Berkeley, where she majored in media studies and dove for two seasons. When she realized her dream wouldn’t happen, she retired. “I never thought I’d do it again,” she says.
After a postgraduation European internship, Smart returned to California. A friend convinced her to hike to the Emerald Pools of the Yuba River, near Lake Tahoe, so she could jump from the 20-meter cliff into the narrow but deep waters below.
“I was standing on the edge and was like, I can’t do this. It’s too scary.” She left, but made up her mind to conquer her fear. Two days later she returned to the Yuba—so far removed from chlorination, safety protocols and 10-meter maximums—and jumped. It was a revelation, and a turning point.
“When I hit the water and accomplished this thing I didn’t think I was capable of, I felt I could do anything,” she says. “It was like I unlocked a new level of myself when I discovered high diving.”
Smart thought, “Maybe I was meant to be doing this.” So she dialed up Dave Colturi—a Red Bull cliff diver and erstwhile instructor at a dive camp Smart had attended as a kid—who gave her encouragement and pointers about a possible cliff-diving career. She bought a one-way ticket to England and began to train, learning the four dives necessary to compete in Red Bull’s World Series.
I unlocked a new level of myself when I discovered high diving.
Within a spectacularly short time span, Smart earned a wild-card invite to the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. In June 2017, she stood atop the cliffs of Inis Mór, Ireland, 21 meters above a “wormhole” natural pool below. Shivering in the wind but ready for takeoff, she leapt into her first World Series with a one-and- a-half twisting double dive. She led the field after Round 1 and ultimately nabbed fifth.
Her upward trajectory continued, though not without bumps, including a crash landing that was “mentally pretty difficult.” Nevertheless, she persisted, winning bronze at the 2018 FINA High Diving World Cup. Smart calls that a “life- changing moment” because it led to a permanent spot on the 2019 Red Bull lineup. And because after that win, she says, “Cliff diving, and being involved in the sport, really did become my life.”
Smart was named FINA’s best female high diver in 2021, and though she wants to climb the rankings—she’s learning a back armstand dive and hopes to be the first woman to nail a back double quad (she was the first to compete with a back double triple)—it’s not just podiums she’s after. “I’ve really shifted my approach. It’s more about proving to myself what I can do, what my strengths are.” And that goes beyond competitions.
In 2020 she earned her master’s degree in sports and exercise science; now her goal is to become Dr. Smart—“I’m doing my Ph.D. in sports management”—before she turns 30.
Growing up in Kansas, Smart had dreams of diving in the Olympics.
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
“My fiancé would say I don’t know how to have fun. Working is fun,” she laughs. “Scheming up new ideas is my hobby.” Her fiancé, fellow cliff diver Owen Weymouth (they got engaged at the last stop of the 2021 series, in Italy), is a frequent collaborator. Together they founded the Clean Cliffs Project, which combats plastic pollution with beach and ocean cleanups and has ambassadors around the world.
Last year Smart pitched Utah’s Olympic Park a “crazy idea to build the first high- dive platform in the United States.” And by July 2021 the International High Diving Institute, of which she is CEO, had materialized. With nine platform heights, 27 meters being the highest, it’s open again this summer to those looking for a fun challenge. Smart has seen people cry in fear at the prospect of a 5-meter jump but then muster up the guts to pull it off—and then go back for a higher jump.
She can relate. “It’s this experience of unlocking an ability in yourself, and I’m just so passionate about sharing that with the world.”
Come June, her own ability to overcome fear will be on display. “I’m excited for Boston,” Smart says. “It’s amazing to be able to share what I do and what I love with my home crowd.”
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