Saskatoon divers make a splash at Winter Senior National Championships

Splashes were made across the pools at the Winter Senior National Championships in Calgary.

Diving Canada holds its premier winter competition annually. This year, the event was held from Dec. 5-7, with divers from across Canada competing.

The event crowns national champions and serves as a key qualification meet for international competitions in 2026.

Some members of the Saskatoon Diving Club landed on the podium.

Kash Tarasoff won bronze from the 10-metre platform, while Tazman Abramowicz won silver in the 1-metre and bronze in the 3-metre.

Both divers train with Mary Carroll, who began her coaching career while she was still a diver herself in Thunder Bay, Ont. and has coached from Saskatoon since 2008.

An Olympic diver herself, Carroll recently trained two divers who attended the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

Diving since he was child, Tarasoff is now 16 years old. Earlier this year, as an under-16 athlete, he set a new Saskatchewan record at the Junior Elite National Championship, reaching the podium three times and scoring perfect 10s on three dives.

Tarasoff said he was an acrobat growing up, always flipping off of his aunt and uncle's couch. His family took notice and decided to see if he would like diving.

“My mom [took me] to the Shaw Centre, the diving pool, [to] see if I would like it. I jumped off, [and] she was waiting at the bottom, and I loved it,” he said in an interview on CBC's Saskatoon Morning.

He finds the 10-meter dive scary, but really likes the thrill of it, he said.

He has looked up to Rylan Wiens since he was a little kid, and now they train together.

"I always push him every day and he always pushes me every day. It's super great," Tarasoff said.

The other diver making a splash is Tazman Abramowicz.

He was on a scholarship with the National Collegiate Athletic Association for seven years before he came to train with Carroll in Saskatoon.

“I just needed a place to train for a couple of weeks before nationals, so I was able to. Mary was nice enough to let me train with her for a couple weeks before, and I ended up having a really good meet and getting a personal best and just really enjoyed the training environment and the team and everything," he said.

"And I was lucky enough to be able to stay and move my life here.”

Abramowicz is originally from Calgary, where he started diving at the age of six. He learned how to do flips while jumping on his parents' bed, he said.

“Going to a pool with a diving board that I just ran out myself and did a flip off of, my parents signed me up and then it's been diving ever since.”

He enjoys being with the Saskatoon club, and loves the support he gets from Carroll, he said.

“Everyone is motivated. All the kids I've coached and everyone I see is super motivated. Coming from nine-year-olds, all the way up to this group, with me being 25, there's just a lot of desire to get better and not a lot of excuses being made," he said.

Both divers said their eyes are set on attending the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.