Aniella Plowman (AUS)
Honor Masters Diver (2015)
INTERNATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS: 25 gold, one silver medal, one bronze medal for a total of 27 medals in international competition; 38 US MASTERS TITLES; COUNTLESS AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL TITLES: records lost
The water always played a large role in her life. At the young age of six, her family emigrated from the Netherlands to Australia. During her first months in Australia, Aniella Plowman and her brother spent a lot of time at the beach. They should have been in school, but they did not understand or speak English, and as Aniella says, “the beach was much more enjoyable!” It was at the beaches of Sydney that she learned to swim, in a pool that was located at the beach.
Aniella first learned to dive at the age of 16, at the Granville Public Pool. She says the reason for learning to dive was that it would enable her to win another event. With each win or placing in athletic events, it helped in an effort to the coveted overall point score at school. During Aniella’s final year of high school, she won the overall point score for swimming and athletics.
In the early 1960’s and even beyond, women were expected to just do “pretty” dives, not the acrobatic dives, Plowman says. In 1963, she was the first Australian female to do a back two and one half somersaults and a reverse two and one half somersaults. She goes on to say, “It was another five years before another Australian woman was doing these dives”. It is of significance, because even at the 1968 Olympic Games, the womens 3 meter champion did not use these dives”. Plowman dove competitively in national and international diving competitions. She competed in the 1965 and 1969 Maccabean Games. In her late teens and early 20’s, Aniella also competed at the national and international level in the sport of trampoline. She was a multiple-time national champion.
Her first year of Masters Competition was 1989. She loves the sport of diving, particularly Masters diving. Aniella says “I love the sport of diving as it gives me a great sense of satisfaction and I have found great camaraderie in Masters Diving. I did not find this camaraderie in non-masters competition.”
Aniella says her most memorable diving meet was the U.S. Masters National event, The Grand Masters I. Plowman explains that Grand Masters are in 15 year age groups and it is permissible to dive down. At age 46, Aniella, dove with the 21-34 year olds and won the event.