Retired Olympic ten-metre platform diver Mathew Helm is toying with the idea of a comeback to competitive diving in a bid to compete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Helm, 26, is aiming to take care of some “unfinished business” after his sensational performance at the 2004 Athens Games where he was one off winning gold in the men’s 10m platform event.

The Olympic silver and bronze medallist has been back on the platform and diving with the Australian Youth squad this week as their ambassador at the Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney.

The strong squad of young divers, including Commonwealth Games star 14-year-old Melissa Wu, appears to have inspired Helm to make a push for the next Olympic Games in August next year.

Although the national diving squad is showing promise in the junior ranks, there has been a hole left by the retirement of Olympic medallists, Chantelle and Robert Newbery, Steven Barnett and Helm along with the absence of current Olympic platform champion, Loudy Tourky who has taken a twelve month hiatus from the sport.

As one of Australia’s most experienced divers Helm will be looking to fill that gap and qualify for the National squad which he first made in 1999.

 Helm, a strong junior gymnast who took up diving after a broken arm, has dived in two Olympic Games, making his Olympic debut at the 2000 games in Sydney where he finished 8th in the platform and 5th in the synchronised platform. From that point on Helm has been a force in the premier men’s diving event, culminating in his outstanding performance at the 2004 Athens Games.

Joe Bromham
AOC