Just two years ago, Grace Reid doubted she had another Olympic appearance in her.
As a teenager, she was one of Scotland’s most precocious sporting talents – she made her Commonwealth Games debut at the tender age of 14 – but a decade on from her international diving debut, she was no longer enjoying the sport she had devoted her life to.
However, rather than choose the retirement route, Reid opted to reshuffle her life, the consequence of which is that with the 2023 season now in full swing, the 27-year-old is in close to the best shape of her life.
It has been a welcome turnaround going from the verge of retirement to believing she can win major championship silverware once again.
“A couple of years ago, I just wasn’t enjoying diving anymore,” the London-based Edinburgh woman says. “Elite sport is incredibly difficult even on a good day and so if you’re not enjoying it, I don’t know how you can do it. So I got to the point where I felt well if I’m not happy, I don’t think I can justify putting in this amount of work if I’m not getting anything out of it.
“It’s taken me a while to work out what I want my life to look like both in the pool and out of the pool but now I feel every element of my life is fulfilling. I’m really enjoying my diving now and it’s allowing me to invest my time in a smart way to make sure I’m getting the most out of everything I’m doing. I feel, at the moment, in the best shape I’ve been in for a while and I’m having fun diving again and that’s showing in my results.”
Having been an internationalist since high school, it is perhaps inevitable that diving began to consume Reid. Her commitment to the sport did not go unrewarded with two European golds, two Commonwealth golds and a brace of World Championship medals being the trade off for giving her teenage years over to the sport.
But it become too much.
“Diving has taken up so much of my life and so it became my personality – I became ‘Grace the Diver’ more than anything else and I like to think I have more to offer than purely diving,” she says.
“When I was younger, I didn’t know anything else but on the other hand, I wouldn’t have reached the level I have had it been any different so it’s a Catch-22.
“So now, I exist as more than just a diver and that’s really healthy.”
Reid’s start to this season, despite suffering an injury, has been hugely successful.
A fourth-place finish in the 3m springboard at the first World Cup event of the year in China was followed by an eighth place at the second in Canada.
Next up for Reid is the British Championships, which begin on Thursday in Sheffield and where she has her sights set on adding yet another national title to her tally.
She will be joined there by, amongst others, her fellow Commonwealth Games gold medallist James Heatly, but for Reid, her major focus over the coming months is the World Championships in Japan in July and then the big one, the Olympic Games in Paris next summer.
Already a two-time Olympian, Reid is laser focused on making it a hat-trick of Olympic appearances but she is after more than merely the tracksuit.
Having already won European, World and Commonwealth Games silverware, there is just one thing missing from her collection – an Olympic medal.
And although Paris 2024 is still more than a year away, Reid admits Olympic success is already creeping into her thoughts.
“The Olympics hasn’t really left my mind since I was about five years old,” she says. “A couple of years ago, I wasn’t sure if I was going to carry on until Paris but now, that’s what all my preparations are geared towards
“Of course I think about completing the set of medals. I wouldn’t still be doing this if I didn’t think a medal was a possibility. So I do dream about it but I also know it’s about what I do today, tomorrow and next week that will make that dream a reality.”
