Canada shy of podium in mixed team competition
World Cup Super Final
Montréal, May 1, 2026 – Canada fell just 1.95 points shy of securing third place in the mixed team competition on day one of the World Cup Super Final in Beijing, China.
On Friday, Katelyn Fung, Mia Vallée, Matt Cullen, and Nathan Zsombor-Murraycollected 408.50 points, finishing right behind the bronze-medallist Australians (410.45). The gold medal went to China (463.70) and the silver to Mexico (422.50). The Canadians, who had held provisional fourth place throughout the competition, moved up one spot in the penultimate round. However, the Australians narrowly edged them out on the final dive.
“I’m happy with my individual dive, but that’s not what matters. We win or lose as a team. It’s not anyone’s fault. It just means that next time, we’ll have to dive a bit better if we want to win a medal,” said Cullen, who specializes in the 10m platform, along with Fung.
“All of us were feeling fatigued because we had all competed earlier, but despite that, we gave it our all. Fourth place is good, and we’re satisfied,” added the Québécois.
The two Canadian men’s pairs who competed on Friday—Matt Cullen and Benjamin Tessier in the synchronized 10m and Carson Paul and Nathan Zsombor-Murray in the synchronized 3m—both finished fifth, while the Chinese teams won all five events of the day.
“The competition began well for us, and we did well on our first four dives, especially the reverse three-and-a-half pike, which went really well. But we dropped in the standings after our front four-and-a-half. Our last two dives fell short of our expectations,” said Tessier.
This was the second time Cullen and Tessier had performed the reverse three-and-a-half pike, rated 3.6 in difficulty, in international competition. The judges awarded them a score of 84.24, the duo’s highest of the finals.
“We now know we can perform it really well, and that it’s worth a lot of points. But our forward four-and-a-half needs work,” noted Tessier.
“We can see that we have talent together, and we know we can go far,” added his teammate Cullen.
In the men’s synchronized 3m competition, Paul and Zsombor-Murray finished with 389.88 points. The pair had slipped to seventh place with one round remaining, but thanks to a score of 77.52 in the final round—their best of the competition—they climbed two spots.
In the women’s events, Fung and Kate Miller placed seventh in the synchronized 10m contest, with 275.82 points.
“For me personally, it was kind of a tough day,” admitted Fung. “Kate and I got off to a good start, but we messed up a big dive toward the end. However, we were still able to finish strong, so we’ll focus on the positives. I’ll leave the unpleasant stuff behind and turn my attention to the remainder of the competition.”
In their first Super Final together, Amélie-Laura Jasmin and Mia Vallée (250.98) finished eighth in the synchronized 3m event.
Two individual events are on the schedule for Saturday: the women’s 10m and the men’s 3m. The competitions will be held in a head-to-head format, which is exclusive to the World Cup Super Final.
Katelyn Fung, Kate Miller, Carson Paul, and Nathan Zsombor-Murray will all be in action.
