Tonia Couch (born 20 May 1989) is a former British Olympic diver.

Biography

Tonia Couch was born in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

. She had been a fairly accomplished competitive gymnast when she participated in diving for a "trial" in September 1999. Just four weeks later, she won her first competition, a novice event at Crystal Palace in London. In February 2002, she became the youngest girl ever to qualify for the lottery funded Junior Olympic Programme, when she took bronze in the Junior girls platform event at the British Championships. It was at that point that her talent on the platform was really recognised. She participated at the

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and 2007 World Championships, finishing 25th in the 10 m platform in both. In 2008 and 2009, her eighth-place finishes at the Olympics and the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, the best result by a British female for 20 years, secured her place in British diving history. She competed at the 2009 World Championships in Rome and at her second

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

in 2010 in Delhi. At the 2010 Commonwealth games her 10m

synchro A synchro (also known as selsyn and by other brand names) is, in effect, a transformer whose primary-to-secondary coupling may be varied by physically changing the relative orientation of the two windings. Synchros are often used for measuring ...

partnership with

Sarah Barrow Sarah Barrow (born 22 October 1988) is a British retired diver who competed in several LEN European Aquatics Championships and Commonwealth Games, where she won multiple medals. Career Sarah Barrow was born on 22 October 1988. She competed ...

gained fourth place. Couch reached the World final again in 2011, finishing ninth in the 10m platform. In synchro partnership with Sarah Barrow, the pair finished fourth. The duo won the European gold and World Cup bronze in 2012, and a finished in fifth-place in front of a home crowd at the

London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. In the 2013 season, she reclaimed the British 10m platform title, and competed at her fifth consecutive World Championships in the summer, finishing ninth in the 10m platform and fifth with Barrow in the 10m synchro." In the 2014 season she finished fourth at the World Cup in Shanghai, then combined with Barrow to win a silver medal at the

Commonwealth games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

held in Glasgow, 2014. At the March 2015 World Series in Dubai, Couch took third place in the 10m platform event. She won the overall title of Diving World Series champion for the 10m platform, after winning four bronze medals in the series. She and Sarah Barrow also won two bronzes and a silver in the synchro event. She participated in the

in Kazan, reaching 8th in the 10 m platform event and 6th in the 10 m synchro event with Sarah Barrow. This helped Team GB to secure a quota place at the 2016 Olympics. In 2016, Couch appeared on

Deal or no Deal on Tour A deal, or deals may refer to: Places United States * Deal, New Jersey, a borough * Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Deal Lake, New Jersey Elsewhere * Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia * Deal, Kent, a town in England * Deal, a ...

as a box-opener. Couch participated in 10m platform diving in Diving World Series 2016 in Kazan in April 2016 and won a silver medal with a score of 365.90, less than two points behind the gold winner Qian Ren. Her best dive was an inward 3 1/2 somersaults in pike position (DD 3.2) which got a score of 81.60. In the

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, Couch and

Lois Toulson Lois Mae Toulson (born 26 September 1999) is a British diver. A specialist in the 10 metre platform, she won the gold medal at the inaugural European Games in 2015, and the senior European title in 2017. She competed in the women's synchroni ...

won fifth place in synchronized 10m platform with a score of 319.44. Couch also competed in 10m platform and reached the finals, finishing in 12th place with a score of 323.70. She participated in Diving World Series 2017 Beijing between 3–5 March 2017 competing in the Women's synchronised 10m, teamed with Toulson and finishing in fifth place with a score of 294.72. Couch participated in the Diving World Series 2017 between 9 - 11 Mar 2017 in Guangzhou, again teamed with Lois Toulson and finishing in 5th place with a score of 308.16 in the 10m synchronized platform diving. On 31 March 2017 Couch and Toulson competed in the Diving World Series 2017 in Kazan, again finishing in fifth place in the 10m platform synchronized diving with a score of 269.58. She qualified for the

in 2016, competing in the synchronised 10 m platform event with Toulson. Following her retirement, Couch received a special recognition award at the British Diving Championships on 26 January 2018.

Diving achievements

References

External links

London 2012 athlete profileSwimming.orgBBC article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Couch, Tonia English female divers Divers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Divers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Divers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic divers for Great Britain Sportspeople from Plymouth, Devon 1989 births Living people Divers at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Commonwealth Games medallists in diving Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games