Maria Yuryevna Polyakova (russian: Мария Юрьевна Полякова; born 8 May 1997) is a Russian diver. She is a

European Games The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic Games, Olympic tradition contested by sportsperson, athletes from European nations and several European Olympic Committees#Notes, transcontinental countries. The Games were ...

and European champion. Polyakova also competed in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

diving for the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). ...

, becoming UCLA’s first national champion in women’s diving, and graduating as the university’s record holder in both the 1 and 3 metres. She was named

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

Diver of the Year in 2017 and 2019. Polyakova has qualified for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Personal life

Maria was born on 8 May 1997. She was a student-athlete majoring in

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, and graduated in 2019.

References

Russian female divers 1997 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Divers at the 2015 European Games European Games medalists in diving European Games gold medalists for Russia European Games silver medalists for Russia Universiade medalists in diving Universiade bronze medalists for Russia Divers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic divers of Russia] {{Russia-acrobatics-diving-bio-stub