It wasn't long ago that Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix was known for her famous father, but the diver has become a star in her own right over the past 12 months.
Fred Sirieix, the much-loved maitre d' from Channel 4's First Dates , was in attendance when Andrea claimed double gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this year. Having repeated that feat at the European Championships in August and medalled at the World Championships in July, Spendolini-Sirieix is fast becoming a household name without any aid from her TV personality parent.
“It’s quite funny, I had an interaction with someone the other day," Spendolini-Sirieix, 18, recounted to the PA news agency. "I was with my mum, and (a man) just stopped and just pointed at me and went, ‘Well done! Well done’.
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“I didn’t know what to do. It feels a bit weird, because usually it’s my dad that’s recognised and I’m just there standing in the back. But to know that my name is out there, I’m not just someone’s daughter. I’m actually doing something on my own and my name is appearing… It feels good.”
It was never guaranteed Spendolini-Sirieix would achieve diving stardom, particularly after a seventh-place finish in the women's 10-metre platform at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made her doubt her future in the sport. Aged just 16 at the time of that final heartbreak, the teenager faced a battle of wills to double down in an effort to make up for that miss.
A meteoric rise in 2022 has put paid to any doubts as to whether she belonged among the elite, however. After winning two gold medals in each of Birmingham and Rome, Spendolini-Sirieix is one of six finalists for BT Sport’s Action Woman Awards and is targeting her place at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“I was quite ready to pack my bags and be done,” she continued. “It’s quite difficult to say that because I’ve put 10 years of hard work and time and effort and my family has sacrificed so much for my career.
“To think that at the beginning of the year I was going to throw it all away, before I was able to start reaping medals and victories… It is quite difficult to look back on. I was so distraught, I was upset every single day, training was difficult, school was hard.”
The emerging star looks back upon the Commonwealth Games as her "favourite competition so far," a new experience competing in front of major audiences after the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Father Fred was among the loudest members of that Birmingham audience, but Spendolini-Sirieix deserves all the plaudits for her ongoing success since that meet.
“They don’t get easier,” she added. “You can still physically do the dive, it’s your mentality and your fear of diving. Because as you get older, you think about the dangers of the sport. When you’re younger you just think about the adrenaline, but as you grow you think well, actually, there are risks.
“I think I was so focused on making sure I was perfect at everything, but I wasn’t thinking about myself. I wasn’t thinking about my well-being. It’s quite hard to say but I didn’t love myself then. It was a lot of self-doubt. I was like a robot.
“(But) I knew I had a little more in me. I knew there was a small part of me that didn’t want to give up.”
Watch the 2022 BT Sport Action Woman of the Year Awards on Wednesday, November 16, live on BT Sport as well as Facebook and YouTube. For more info, visit Action Woman Awards 2022 | Vote Now | BT Sport.
