Megan De Almeida, a resident of Divar, is making her name among the diving fraternity at the State and National level. Eldest child of the De Almeida family, Megan joined Diving at the Campal pool under the experienced hands of Coach Narshima when she was 11 years old.
“I always liked gymnastics at school from young, however after getting introduced to diving I just loved it,” said Megan.
In less than 2 years Megan has 4 medals at the National level which include 3 golds (1 metre springboard, 3 metre springboard and 5 metre high board respectively at the Rajkot, Gujarat National School Games 2016) and a silver at the Bangalore Nationals 2016 on 3 metre springboard.
Megan’s focus, commitment, aerial kinetics sense combined with excellent and insightful coaching by coach Narshimalu is what catapulted Megan into being a National level diver in such a short time.
“I enjoy my time at the pool diving with my friends, the whole environment is so energetic and friendly. Narshima sir, has been a blessing to have at the Campal pool. He is an excellent and committed coach, who has vast experience of coaching and momentous achievements in Goa”, said the diver.
“One cannot forget the diving infrastructure and the professional maintenance of the pool that helps make it a great place for enjoying and learning diving”, she added
Megan’s first National at Bangalore was not all a happy story. After winning the first silver medal on day 1, in her practice session for the 1 metre event on day 2, she hit her forehead on the board resulting in a 5 stitches.
“I was scared when this happened, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to me and I was crying out of fear. However, with the support of my family and coach I vowed to come back fighting for the next Nationals. That’s exactly what I did, winning 3 Gold medals on all 3 boards in 6 months time,” Megan explained.
Diving requires a lot of hard work where both body and mind needs to be focused for this sport. Any lapse of concentration can lead to a bad dive or even cause serious injuries. Her first accident has taught her to be focused on the board and to execute her dives with more precision. She feels that this sport is teaching her life skills to adapt in extreme environments and compete under pressure.
“Diving at practice sessions at your home pool is different compared to the diving at the competitions. At the practice session you are in a relaxed and calculated environment but for the competitions the environment is volatile where one has to be ready to dive into a freezing pool, or with stomach cramps, under crowded, stressful and tiring conditions due to travel and lack of sleep,” Megan elaborated.
Megan, also has a love for music, she loves to sing and play the piano in her spare time. She has achieved her Grade 5 Trinity Certification for piano and loves to be part of a choir in Panjim.
“Piano and Diving are related. Sometimes, I dive thinking of a musical piece and I play the piano thinking of a dive I perform.”
Currently, Megan is training 3 hours a day at the Campal pool for the upcoming Nationals in Pune in June 2017.
“I am attempting to learn new difficult dives for the upcoming Nationals. The difficult dives are tough and scary but they are exciting once you have got them. Narshima sir has great insight of how to teach the difficult dives due to his vast experience.
“At the moment I am enjoying every bit of diving and with God’s wish, I hope to become a great diver one day,” she concluded.
