With a splash of determination and more than a dash of Jamaican spirit, 15-year-old Sophie Bruce is making waves in the diving world, driven by her ultimate goal of representing Jamaica at the Olympic Games.

The United States-based Bruce, once a gymnast, reached a crossroads a few years ago. The toll that gymnastics was taking on her body and a dwindling joy in the sport led her to explore new horizons.

Her mother, Tessie October, suggested that she tried diving at a summer league. Bruce made the plunge and became hooked.

“I was expecting it to be like a short-term thing, and so I tried that for a little bit and I liked it. At that point, I decided to close out gymnastic because it was getting hard on my body and it was also becoming not fun anymore,” Bruce told the Jamaica Observer last week during a visit to the island.

As she transitioned from gymnastics to diving, she found a new sense of freedom.

“Diving at the moment is so much fun for me. It’s like a freeway to express myself. I love to flip, I have always loved that, and that’s why my mom had put me in gymnastics,” she exclaimed.

Bruce quickly excelled in diving, catching the attention of trained eyes and earning an invitation to a development programme.

“Because of my gymnastics background, I was good at it for someone who had just started. So the coach of the junior Olympic team at my school started noticing me and she asked if I wanted to [join] what they called NDP (National Development Program), and I said yes,” Sophie noted.

“Since then, I have been competing for the United States Diving. I started diving competitively about a year ago, but, in general, I started diving in 2021,” said Bruce, who attended the Albert Einstein High School in Kensington, Maryland.

However, an opportunity to represent Jamaica — by virtue of ancestry through her father Sean — has ignited a new sense of purpose in Bruce.

“I want to dive for Jamaica… the option was brought to me. First of all, to dive for the US is incredibly hard because it’s a compact country based on a lot of people are very, very good, they are like the best of the best,” she said.

“I have come to realise that Jamaica doesn’t have many divers currently now that Yona Knight-Wisdom has retired and I have been told I could be the next best in line. Jamaica is such a beautiful country, and it’s my dad’s home, and I like to call it my home because it is so fun here, and I would love to represent Jamaica,” Bruce explained.

“If I could represent Jamaica at the Olympics, it would mean the world to me. I would feel like I’m impressing all my ancestors and my entire family because to get the option to compete for a country of my family, which is not the US, would be just extraordinary,” she said emotionally.

Bruce believes such an achievement could leave a lasting legacy.

“I feel like that would be something that can go down into the books for sure, and I think it will make a lot of people proud, it would make myself proud, it will really mean the world to me,” she affirmed.

Throughout her journey, Bruce’s mother, and her coach, Noah Ehrenberg, have been most instrumental in her success.

“The most influential in my career would be two people, my mom because she is always telling me to keep going. She is always there on my good and bad days, and I love her very much,” Bruce acknowledged.

“The second person would be my coach. He has been a constant presence in my diving career. He has been this one coach who has been there for me and who really believed in me,” Sophie said gratefully.

As Bruce navigates the challenges of diving, she’s learned to manage her mental game.

“Diving is really difficult. It’s really hard. It looks really cool when people flip, but the flipping part is not as hard as the mental part,” she admitted.

“It is so hard just to walk along, you could hit the board, you could land wrong, and you could have to perform for a crowd and for these judges who scolded you with their eyes and all of that comes down on your head and you just don’t want to overwhelm yourself. Diving is about calming down yourself and releasing every thought in your head just for one second,” she further stated.

With her sights set on the 2028 or 2032 Olympics, Bruce is driven by a desire to make her family and Jamaica proud.

“I wanted to be in gymnastics, which is why I had such a hard time letting gymnastics go, but I did really want to take it. I still want to take it to Olympic level and I want to get into UCL, the University of California Los Angeles, for college and then hopefully the Olympics,” Bruce said.

Knight-Wisdom, a three-time Olympian and organiser of diving camps in Jamaica, is encouraged by the potential he sees in Bruce.

“I’m excited to see Sophie thrive in her diving career. Having met her in person and witnessed her diving skills, I’m impressed by her potential. As someone who started representing Jamaica at 17, I’m eager to share my knowledge and experience with Sophie, who has already demonstrated ambition and drive at just 15 years old,” he told the Observer.

“I want her to be ambitious in what she wants to achieve and go after that 100 per cent and knowing that I am here to support her along the way. Her journey will be completely different because I didn’t have a me to guide me. I had to guide myself and get experience from other people, where[as] she got me, so I can help her out. Based on how she talks, I feel excited and confident in her making a successful diving career,” Knight-Wisdom noted.

BRUCE… if I could represent Jamaica at the Olympics it would mean the world to me (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

American-based diver Sophie Bruce points during a conversation with Jamaica’s retired Olympian Yona Knight-Wisdom at the National Aquatic Centre in St Andrew on Thursday, August 14, 2025. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Sophie Bruce (left) dives as training camp organiser Yona Knight-Wisdom looks on at the National Aquatic Centre.

Jamaica’s retired ace diver Yona Kinght-Wisdom (left) and Sophie Bruce practise inside the National Aquatic Centre at Independence Park in St Andrew.