colleenyoungdiving.com

if you had asked colleen young at the age of 4 what she wanted to do when she grew up, she would of looked you dead in the eye and said “be a mermaid”. not much has changed for the 20 year old, a junior at duke university. being the technical youngest of three meant fighting for the spotlight constantly. her eldest sister, caroline, took to dance like a regular old anna pavlova while twin sister, camilla, had a knack from songwriting at the age of 5. colleen will joke that nothing came easy to her, especially the normal team sports you enroll your toddler in; soccer, t-ball, basketball. the only time the girl actually seemed to enjoy anything at all was in the water. bath time became an under water adventure until she was much too large to go under in the tub and the family’s annual trip to myrtle beach meant hour upon hour in the salty water until her skin shriveled up like an old prune.

colleen often credits her career to her father, issac. they tried swimming first, enrolling their six year old in to a competitive ymca team. while it went well, the regular ol’ fish became a fish out of water. more and more of her time became spent around gymnasiums where girls her age completed tumble pass after pass, swung from bars and did things on a beam colleen could only dream about. after three months on her swim team, miss young cried to her mother and begged her to do gymnastics and that she would “absolutely stick with it”. knowing their daughter to be fickle, the only thing she hadn’t grown sick of in her short lifetime being the ocean, they told their daughter “they’d think about it” - the grownup way of saying no. yet, this time, mr and mrs young thought about it, asked around, and found a middle ground: diving. bringing their daughter to new albany high school, where she would become future captain of the team, colleen’s love affair with the sport began.

hard work and dedication have always been the two fundamentals that colleen has prided herself on, you know, after getting over her terrible two’s, three’s, four’s and five’s. if you could define her by any overused statement it would definably be “work hard, play hard.” her grades in school were above average, missing out on valedictorian by a couple hundredths on her gpa. she chalks it up to the heartbreak she faced the summer before her senior year. at only the age of 15, colleen young was prospected to make the us olympic dive team where a shoddy entry caused her to miss out by a point. by sheer dumb coincidence, a shoulder injury sustained during said shoddy entry made it entirely possible that colleen was to miss out on her senior year of competing but with a lot of rehab and luck the captain returned to the springboard for her final year at new albany and absolutely slayed it (her words, really).

having applied to only one school, only a small part of colleen didn’t truly believe she’d get in to duke. maybe she wasn’t well rounded enough or her scores weren’t high enough to be considered a shoo-in. to the surprise of absolutely no one, her early acceptance letter came and the congratulations were sent. colleen young was the newest blue devil and surely to lead their women’s dive team to greatness. declaring a major in biology, she one day hopes to practice marine mammal research when she retires and hangs up her speedo. everyone who meets this vivacious young adult says she’s always dancing, singing to the newest hit pop song. in interviews she comes across as silly, but grounded and knows her sport well. colleen’s sister, camilla, once described her as “taylor swift meets princess ariel with a dash of brook davis”, always looking on the bright side and searching for adventure. outside of diving you can catch her by the ocean, taking frequent and long naps and eating one too many chipotle burritos against the advice of her coach.

winning meet after meet, placing highly in school related and national events colleen young is surely on her way to becoming an olympian, just like everyone has dreamed for her it seems... but, if you ask her, she’ll look you dead in the eye and tell you that “all she wants to do is be a mermaid, no really."

awards
2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Diving 1st - senior women 3m springboard 2015 USA Diving Winter National Championships 1st - senior women 3m springboard 3rd - synchronized women 3m springboard 2015 ATT Senior National Diving Championships 3rd - senior women 1m springboard 1st - senior women 3m springboard 2014 ATT Senior National Diving Championships 3rd - senior women 1m springboard 3rd - synchronized women 3m springboard 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials 4th - senior women 3m springboard 2nd - synchronized women 3m springboard 2012 USA DIVING WINTER NATIONAL 4th - senior women 3m springboard 2011 AT&T National Diving Championships 4th - senior women 1m springboard 1st - synchonized women 3m springboard 2011 USA Diving Winter National Championships 1st - synchronized women 3m springboard 2010 AT&T National Diving Championships 1st - synchronized women 3m springboard 5th - senior women 3m springboard 2009 World Cup Synchronized Diving Trials 1st - synchronized women 3m springboard 2009 AT&T National Diving Championship 1st - synchronized women 3m springboard 2008 Speedo USA Diving Spring National Final 6th - senior women 1m springboard