Bronze for Éloïse Bélanger under the Fort Lauderdale Sun
American Cup
Charles-Antoine Labadie Claims Silver in High Diving
Montréal, April 20, 2026 – Éloïse Bélanger shone this past weekend at the American Diving Cup in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she claimed third place in the women’s 10-metre platform finals.
Bélanger, the only Canadian competing on the 10m platform at the open-air American Cup, finished sixth in the preliminaries, slightly more than seven points behind third place, with 289.15 points.
In the finals, the Québécoise forged ahead with confidence. She raised her score to 317.95, good for third place on the podium, where she was joined by gold medallist Eden Cheng of Great Britain (340.20) and silver medallist Bayleigh Cranford of the USA (321.50).
“Overall, I’m happy with the way things went this past week in Florida, and with my performance in Saturday’s finals. Earlier in the week, I had a bit of a sore neck, which affected certain movements, so that was a bit of a challenge. But we were able to adapt. I performed well in many ways, but I also noticed the things I need to keep working on in order to improve. I feel confident going forward,” said Bélanger.
In the women’s 3m event, Lila Stewart took part in her very first international competition as a senior. And not only did the diver from Saskatchewan advance all the way to the finals, but she also set a new personal best (287.85), which allowed her to finish fifth. In the semi-finals, she had secured the last available spot in the finals.
“My goal was simply to make it to the finals. I had a bit of trouble in the qualification rounds, but I was able to bounce back in the semi-finals. It made for a very long day, but I was determined! In the finals, I landed the dives I had messed up earlier in the competition. I’m really happy with my final score,” noted Stewart.
Sophie Verzyl of the USA won gold in the 3m event with a total of 329.40 points, ahead of Great Britain’s Desharne Bent-Ashmeil (303.60). Australia’s Nathalie Phan took third place with 296.10 points.
On the men’s side, Thomas Ciprick placed 15th in the 3m preliminaries, while Tazman Abramowicz finished 19th. Neither of the divers qualified for the finals.
First medal for Charles-Antoine Labadie
The world’s top high-diving athletes were also in Fort Lauderdale for the first competition of the season. Quebec’s Charles-Antoine Labadie made his mark by earning the first international podium finish of his career as a senior.
In third place after the preliminaries with 158.50 points, Labadie picked up where he left off in the finals the next day. In fact, he brought his score up to 348.50, thus capturing the silver medal.
Michael Foisy finished sixth (259,95).
Molly Carlson posted Canada’s best result in the women’s high-diving competition with a seventh-place finish (274.00 points). Aimee Harrison (232.10) and Fiona Keilly(227.00) placed ninth and tenth, respectively.
Click here for all the American Cup results.
For the high-diving competition results, click here.
