FIU diver overcomes fears to become school’s first to qualify for USA Olympic Trials

The three-meter diving board doesn’t sound all that high -- officially 9.84 feet off the ground – but, to FIU’s Paige Burrell, it might as well have been Mount Everest.

As a youth in Pennsylvania, Burrell was a two-time state gymnastics champion in her preferred event, the vault.

So, she’s not exactly a fearful person.

But when she started diving at age 10, the three-meter board was a bit of a problem.

“I was terrified,” Burrell said. “I didn’t like it. I would get kicked out of practices. I would jump and do dives, but I wouldn’t try anything new or hard.

“It took two or three years, honestly.”

Burrell not only got over her fear, but, on Thursday in Knoxville, Tennessee, she will become the first FIU diver ever to compete at the USA Olympic Trials.

A native of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, Burrell’s story begins there, just 35 minutes outside of Philadelphia.

Burrell started gymnastics at age four, and, after getting burned out on that sport, she made a relatively smooth transition to diving.

Kyle Goldbacher, who coached Burrell at North Penn High, has known her since age nine.

Goldbacher said Burrell’s gymnastics background has served as a “perfect foundation” for her diving career.

“It’s helped her with balance, strength and physical conditioning,” he said. “She also learned to deal with pressure. In gymnastics as in diving, it’s performative. You are being watched and judged, and yet she has the grace and the beauty and the confidence to excel.”

Burrell, who is now 5-5 and 155 pounds, is powerfully built, especially in her lower half, and that’s what Goldbacher saw when he convinced her to try diving.

The coach attributes some of her power to a great mix of genetics, noting that her mom is White, her dad is Black, and there’s also Cherokee Indian blood on her father’s side.

“She’s always been super fit,” Burrell said. “I would ask her parents: ‘What are you feeding her?’

“Even at age nine, she was amazingly strong and well-proportioned.”

Burrell parlayed that power into becoming a three-time high school state diving champ, but that was in the one-meter.

Three-meter diving was not a high school event in Pennsylvania, and Goldbacher knew that for Burrell to get a college scholarship she would need to eventually excel on all boards.

However, access was a problem back at North Penn.

“We didn’t have a three-meter board at our school,” Goldbacher said. “(Three-meter boards) are scarce in the northeast.

“To have access (to three-meter boards), we had to drive to New Jersey or Maryland twice a week.

“Paige had to be ready to take advantage of those opportunities. She would do her homework in the back of the van. I remember her saying, ‘It’s going to be great one day when I don’t have to travel a couple of hours for practice’.”

Burrell finally got the facilities she needed at the University of North Carolina from 2019 to 2023, qualifying for the NCAA championships in her final season there.

Looking for a change and a place to earn a Master’s degree, Burrell put her name in the transfer portal last summer.

That attracted the attention of Josh Larcom, a 28-year-old New Yorker who is in his second year as FIU’s diving coach.

Larcom called Burrell and found her to be receptive.

“I always wanted to live in Miami,” said Burrell, a 23-year-old who aspires to become a physical trainer, a health coach or a food anthropologist. “This area is booming in the fitness industry.

“When FIU reached out, it lined up perfectly because I was going to reach out to them.”

Everything has worked out for Burrell, who earned her Master’s Degree last week in Kinesiology and Sports Science.

“It’s been an honor to coach Paige,” Larcom said. “She’s a great leader, super dedicated, and she has had an absurdly crazy schedule with school and practice.”

Larcom said mental approach is the biggest thing he has worked to improve in Burrell’s career.

“Her confidence wasn’t always fully and consistently there,” Larcom said. “On the diving board, you have to think of about 18 things in three seconds.

“You have to squeeze every muscle you have during your dive. You want to be tight when you hit the water so that it’s a softer landing and so that there’s no splash.”

Burrell, who is constantly analyzing her dives on video, won the American Athletic Conference one-meter title in Dallas this past February.

She also finished fourth in the three-meter dive, which is the only diving event at the Olympic Trials.

Burrell, who also competed in the USA Olympic Trials in 2021, said she figures to be much more comfortable this time.

“That meet was the biggest of my life,” Burrell said of the 2021 Olympic Trials. “There were a lot of cameras and big lights. I was scared because I had just upgraded to harder dives.

“This time, I know the atmosphere. I will be calmer because these are the same dives I’ve been doing the past three years.”

Goldbacher said Burrell is “immensely gifted” physically and mentally.

“Paige is not a showman, but she’s tenacious,” Goldbacher said. “There’s an artistry to her diving because it’s about rhythm and balance.

“Paige does dives that men and only a handful of women can do.”

Goldbacher said he knew Burrell would blossom in college, where she could unleash her full power.

“She might tell people that she struggles with confidence,” Goldbacher said. “But she is able to rise to the occasion, and that requires courage.

“Paige is overflowing with courage.”

Goldbacher said he is hoping Burrell can be a top-12 finalist at the Team USA Trials.

According to Burrell, she expects the competition to be wide open.

“If I do the dives the way I have practiced them, and if other people are off their games …” Burrell said.

“Let’s just say that I’m not going to count myself out.”