Caeli McKay
Women’s Senior National Team About Caeli McKay
Olympian Caeli McKay, once a burgeoning teenager, is now an established leader putting a major ankle injury in her rearview and charting a fresh course on tower in 2023. The new ankle and hard work have paid off. McKay won her first individual medal at the World Championships in July 2023 in Fukuoka. The bronze medal in the 10m tower was the first in 20 years in this event for the women.
Early in her life, McKay was exposed to an active lifestyle by her family including soccer, gymnastics, mountain biking, and hiking in her native Alberta. But diving stole her attention at 5 years-old. After trying diving at a summer camp, McKay was asked to join the competitive team with Dive Calgary.
As a very young athlete, McKay would meet one of Canada’s great platform diving teams, Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion, who would both play a central role in her life for years to come. In fact, McKay’s first medal at the senior national level was when she was 14 years-old at 2014 Winter Nationals. She won a bronze behind Benfeito and Filion on tower.
Precocious from the beginning, at only 16, McKay made the decision to move from Calgary to Montreal in order to train with more of Canada’s senior national team. When Filion retired after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Benfeito was in need of a new synchro partner. It was then 17 year-old McKay who was chosen to join her childhood hero and form a new team for the next Olympic quadrennial.
In their first international competition together they won silver at the Grand Prix in Rostock, Germany in February of 2017. By the spring of 2018, the pair had become a mainstay on the international podium, snatching a silver medal at Commonwealth Games in Australia. In 2019, the team added a Pan American Games gold in Lima, Peru.
Benfeito and McKay would qualify for the pandemic delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and run into their biggest challenge as a team less than one month before the Opening Ceremony.
During dryland training in June 2021, McKay tore multiple ligaments in her left ankle. The injury was serious and ill-timed but with stabilizing tape and deep resolve McKay and Benfeito finished fourth in the 10M synchro event.
2023 season marked two years since the accident and the first since McKay underwent ankle surgery in October of 2022.
Her fresh start also includes a new synchro diving partner. Kate Miller, a 17 year-old rising star, will join McKay and give the veteran a chance to mentor a younger diver in the way she herself was taught by Benfeito. McKay will focus on both the synchro and individual events in 2023.
McKay is completing her undergraduate degree in psychology and anthropology at Athabasca University. She is married to two-time Canadian Olympian (2016, 2020), Vincent Riendeau, who is now retired from the sport of diving.
Details
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hometown
born
coach
national team
events
date of birth
Results
2023
World Aquatics Diving World Cup (Berlin) – GOLD – Team event (Hattie, Zsombor-Murray, Ware)
World Aquatics Diving World Cup (Berlin) – SILVER – 10M synchro (Miller)
World Aquatics Diving World Cup (Berlin) – 4th – 10M
World Aquatics Championships – BRONZE – 10M
World Aquatics Championships – 8th (10M synchro)
World Aquatics Diving World Cup (Montreal) – SILVER – Team event (Hattie, Zsombor-Murray, Ware)
World Aquatics Diving World Cup (Montreal) – 5th – 10M
World Aquatics Diving World Cup (Montreal) – 5th – 10M synchro (Miller)
Summer National Championships (Toronto) – 1rst – 10M
2022
Commonwealth Games (Birmingham) – BRONZE – 10M
Commonwealth Games (Birmingham) – 5th – 10M synchro (Toth)
FINA World Championships (Budapest) – 5th – 10M plateform
2021
Olympic Games – 4e – 10M symchro (Benfeito)
FINA Diving World Cup – BRONZE – 10M
FINA Diving World Cup – GOLD – 10M synchro (Benfeito)
2020
Competition | Date | Location | 10M | 10MS | Mixed 10M* |
FINA World Series 1 | 02-2020 | Montreal, CAN | 11th / 256.55 | 1st / 313.02 | 3rd / 306.54 |
2019
Competition | Date | Location | 10M | 10MS* | Mixed 10M* |
Pan Am Games | 08-2019 | Lima, PER | 2nd / 365.70 | 1st / 320.64 | |
FINA World Championships | 07-2019 | Gwangju, KOR | 7th / 331.40 | 4th / 304.05 | |
Summer National Championships | 05-2019 | Windsor, ON | 2nd / 366.80 | ||
FINA World Series 5 | 05-2019 | London, GBR | 6th / 295.25 | 5th / 307.05 | |
FINA World Series 4 | 05-2019 | Kazan, RUS | 9th / 297.05 | 5th / 272.70 | 3rd / 312.42 |
FINA World Series 3 | 04-2019 | Montreal, CAN | 2nd / 328.47 | ||
FINA Grand Prix | 04-2019 | Calgary, CAN | 2nd / 341.25 | 1st / 305.85 | |
FINA World Series 1 | 03-2019 | Beijing, CHN | 3rd / 313.14 | ||
FINA World Series 2 | 03-2019 | Sagamihara, JPN | 3rd / 311.70 | ||
Winter National Championships | 01-2019 | Victoria, BC | 3rd / 353.30 | 1st / 309.30 |
* All 10m synchro results are with Meaghan Benfeito
* All mixed 10m synchro results are with Vincent Riendeau
2018
Competition | Date | Location | 10M | 10MS* | Mixed 10M |
FINA World Cup | 06-2018 | Wuhan, CHN | 3rd / 324.42 | 2nd / 301.20 (Riendeau) | |
FINA Grand Prix 2 | 05-2018 | Calgary, CAN | 6th / 285.80 | 2nd / 303.42 | |
FINA World Series 4 | 05-2018 | Kazan, RUS | 6th / 288.90 | ||
FINA World Series 3 | 04-2018 | Montreal, CAN | 4th / 293.70 | ||
Commonwealth Games | 04-2018 | Gold Coast, AUS | 6th / 325.90 | 2nd / 312.12 | |
FINA World Series 2 | 03-2018 | Fuji, JPN | 9th / 310.20 | 6th / 283.20 | |
FINA World Series 1 | 03-2018 | Beijing, CHN | 8th / 329.20 | 5th / 290.88 | |
Winter Senior National Championships | 01-2018 | Saskatoon, SK | 3rd / 310.35 |
* All 10m synchro results are with Meaghan Benfeito
2017
Competition | Date | Location | 10M | 10MS |
Summer Senior National Championships | 06-2017 | Scarborough, CAN | 4th | |
FINA Grand Prix 2 | 04-2017 | Gatineau, CAN | 4th (Benfeito) | |
FINA World Series 3 | 03-2017 | Kazan, RUS | 2nd (Benfeito) | |
FINA World Series 2 | 03-2017 | Guangzhou, CHN | 4th (Benfeito) | |
FINA World Series 1 | 03-2017 | Beijing, CHN | 4th (Benfeito) | |
FINA Grand Prix 1 | 02-2017 | Rostock, GER | 2nd (Benfeito) |
2016
Competition | Date | Location | 3M | 10M | 3MS |
Australian Grand Prix | 10-2016 | Gold Coast, AUS | 6th | 3rd (Vallee) | |
Malaysian Grand Prix | 10-2016 | Kuching, MAS | 6th | 3rd (Vallee) | |
Speedo Junior Elite National Championships | 07-2016 | Winnipeg, MB | 2nd (McCool) | ||
Summer Senior Nationals OIympic Trials | 06-2016 | Toronto, CAN | 1st | 2nd | |
Spanish Grand Prix | 01-2016 | Madrid, ESP | 5th | 6th |
2015
Competition | Date | Location | 1M | 3M | 10M |
Winter Senior National Championships | 12-2015 | Saskatoon, SK | 1st | 3rd | 6th |
Pan Am Junior Championships | 10-2015 | Matanzas, CUB | 4th | 2nd | 4th |
Speedo Junior Elite National Championships | 07-2015 | Edmonton, AB | 1st | 1st | 1st |
Italian Grand Prix | 07-2015 | Bolzano, ITA | 12th | ||
Summer Senior National Championships | 05-2015 | Victoria, BC | 1st | 1st | 3rd |
2014
Competition | Date | Location | 1M | 3M | 10M | 3MS |
FINA World Junior Championships | 09-2014 | Penza, RUS | 4th | 14th | 8th | 5th (McCool) |
Speedo Junior Elite National Championships | 08-2014 | Victoria, BC | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | 1st (McCool) |
Gillette Canada Cup | 05-2014 | Gatineau, QC | 13th | |||
Winter Senior National Championships | 03-2014 | Saskatoon, SK | 6th | 3rd |
2013
Competition | Date | Location | 1M | 3M | 10M | 3MS |
Pan American Junior Championship | 09-2013 | Tucson, AZ | 1st | 2nd | 6th | |
Canada Games | 08-2013 | Sherbrooke, QC | 6th | 3rd | 2nd | 4th (Wilson) |
Speedo Junior Elite National Championships | 07-2013 | Thunder Bay, ON | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 2nd (Wilson) |
Summer Senior National Championships | 05-2013 | Quebec City, QC | 7th | 14th | 9th | |
International Youth Diving Meet | 04-2013 | Dresden, GER | 3rd | 10th |
2012-2009
Competition | Date | Location | 1M | 3M | 10M |
Speedo Junior National Championship | 07-2012 | Saskatoon, SK | 1st | 1st | 2nd |
Speedo Junior National Championship | 07-2011 | Pointe-Claire, QC | 15th | 10th | 21st |
Speedo Junior National Championship | 07-2010 | Winnipeg, MB | 2nd | 4th | 12th |
Speedo Junior National Championship | 07-2009 | Victoria, BC | 13th | 6th |
Career Highlights
- World Aquatics World Championships: BRONZE 10M Plateform (2023)
- Commonwealth Games: BRONZE 10M Platform (2022), SILVER 10M Synchro (2018)
- Pan American Games: GOLD 10M Synchro (2019), SILVER 10M Platform (2019)
- Six-time Diving Grand Prix medallist (1 GOLD, 3 SILVER, 2 BRONZE, as of April 2023)
- Seven-time Diving World Series medallist (1 GOLD, 2 SILVER, 4 BRONZE, as of April 2023)