Proudly supported by Sylvan Learning, Abbie Wright is our latest featured Sylvan All-Star!
The Forest City Diving Club (FCDC) has a place for everybody – whether you’re looking to dive for fun or you have Olympic dreams. The not-for-profit organization, which is sanctioned by Dive Ontario and Dive Plongeon Canada, has programs designed to fit everyone’s needs, including beginner classes, advanced instructions, ‘learn to dive’ programs, and competitive programs which send athletes to provincial and national competitions.
One of those national level divers is Abbie Wright, an 11-year-old who competes in the 1m and 3m springboard and platform diving events. Now in her fourth year in diving, she started in a ‘learn to dive’ program at FCDC and then progressed to the competitive program – first on the provincial level and now in her second year at the national level.
In 2017, Abbie competed in three provincial events, one national event, and at the Jr. Development nationals in Victoria, BC.
“She’s very dedicated … she’s there every day at 6:30am and she never misses practices,” said Luda Zakharenko, FCDC’s head coach. “Abbie has an excellent sense of body awareness, and she understands muscle memory.”
Wright is now working on getting to the next level as she moves to a new age group in 2018 (12 and 13-year-olds). She expects to learn some new dives and participate in a lot of dryland training and strength and conditioning.
And she’ll doing it under the tutelage of Zakharenko, who has been named Dive Ontario’s Outstanding Coach of the year four times. Originally from Belarus, where she competed and later coaches, Zakharenko has been coaching in Canada since 2002. She currently has 12 divers competing at the national level, including Abbie Wright, and no doubt many more to come!
Contributions by Luda Zakharenko and photo by Beckie Wright
