Lee looks ahead to Kazan

24 Nov 2016

Matty Lee is one of the most promising young divers in Great Britain and is heading to Kazan for the FINA World Junior Championships. Follow his performances at britishswimming.org

My preparations for Junior Worlds have been good so far I can’t wait to get there. I’ve been reaching my pbs in weights and in skinfold measurements which are all very good signs. All of my dives are going well so everything has got better so that’s all good and positive.

Training hard over the summer makes me feel I might be one step ahead of some competitors at Junior World Championships which excites me. It gives me confidence to know that my training has been going well. 


I’m feeling very motivated for this year and feel ready for this competition. I just missed out on the Olympics in Rio which was absolutely gutting – but they say things happen for a reason?  In that situation there were two things I could have done – sat in my room and cried - or suck it up and get on with it - I chose the latter.  I worked hard all summer there’s no point wasting time. I only had a week off that I spent in the Lake District with my family. 

I enjoyed watching the Olympics over the summer and cheering on my team mates out in Rio. I also went down to London to do a live interview about diving at the Olympic FanZone in the Queen Elizabeth Park and attended a Team GB Club house event. 

Matty Lee interviews

When Jack and Chris got their Gold medal, the following day the Leeds Pool was inundated with media enquiries, so I ended up doing a fair few Radio and TV interviews about what it’s like to train here at Leeds with Jack and Chris and how inspirational their medal success was and what it means for diving etc  - so that was cool.

It was incredible to watch those gold, silver and bronze medals won by my friends.  I train with my good mates Jack and Chris (and now Dan) and watching them smashing it in Rio was inspirational. Also knowing they train here at Leeds means that this environment is truly world class and to know I use the same facilities as Olympic medallists is really motivating. 

Another big step I’ve made recently is I’ve moved out of my family home!  My good friend Daniel Goodfellow has made the move to come up and train in Leeds. When this was first discussed we talked about the possibility of sharing a flat – and now it’s happened.  We’ve been sharing the flat for about a month now. So not only do I have a new training partner but a new flat mate as well!

So far it’s been really good, I’m really enjoying my independence, and its building my maturity and both these are having a positive effect on my diving. Plus because we are both divers it makes sharing a flat so much easier and the flat’s much closer to the pool so makes travelling easier as well. The things I’m enjoying the most at the moment are experimenting with cooking, oh and the challenge of assembling flat pack furniture!! 

It’s my last year as a junior, which is sad in some respects as it’s a great set of competitions. This is my absolute last ever competition as a junior diver so I suppose bowing out at the biggest junior diving competition the world is not a bad way to end it on.  It actually means a lot to me personally it will be a great memory to end my junior career on, so I’m really looking forward to it.

My aim for the Junior Worlds is to finish in the top 3 on platform.  Also I’m doing 3m synchro with Anthony Harding, and we are a relatively new paring so we’ll just see how that goes.  I was a Junior European champion in 2012 and 2013 and also European Games Champion in 2015 – so let’s end it on a good one!