Meaghan Benfeito's new dive brings in gold

Change is not an easy thing for athletes, but sometimes the results are golden.

When two-timeOlympianMeaghan Benfeito was toldto scrap a dive she'd been workingon for 10 years,she cried.

"It was very scary," Benfeito, 26, told CBC Sports. "Trying to change dives and getting out of your comfort zone is not something that we're really used to."

"But I think changing it was probably the best idea my coach has ever had."

Time for change

The adjustment came after Benfeito's performance at theworld championships in August in Russia, where she won a pair of silver medals in 10-metre synchronized events but finished seventh in the individual competition.The one big mistake the Montreal-born athlete made was in her back arm stand triple tuck. It's a blind divewhere, if the diver doesn't spot the water well, shewon't know where vertical is, affecting herentry.

"The armstand dive I used to do was very inconsistent," said Benfeito."It could have been really good and it could have been really bad.

"In Russia it was really bad."

Chasing China

So after the world championships, Benfeito's coach, Arturo Miranda, said as soon as they started training again they would transition to a differentapproach.

Benfeito didn't agree at first, but the work began on the new dive: aback armstand double with one and a half twists. It's completely different from the old arm stand dive, but the difficulty is only 0.1 of a degree different.

"It changed more than a lot," Benfeito said in terms of how the new dive affected her training. "And it was hard,it was very hard,but it all came out in the end."

The end being last week's Winter Nationals in Saskatoon. Benfeito felt confident and wongold in the 10-metre tower event. The389.75 pointsshe achievedis competitivewith scores China'sdivers normally hit. The Chinese are the main rivals forCanada'swomen's divers.

"I'm very, very happy with the performance I did on Saturday," said Benfeito. "I knew exactly how to do the dive. Even, when I missed the dive, it's not as bad as when I used to miss the other one.

"And it just motivates me to keep working hard like that and to look forward to competing against the Chinese."

Better late than never

Benfeitotakes that confidence homefor the holidays until she heads to training camp in Cuba on Dec. 28th. There she'll prepare for the FINADiving Grand Prix in Rostock, Germany taking place Jan. 29-31.

Needless to say, Benfeito will be keeping her new dive in her roster heading into the Olympic year.

"As soon as I learnedthe new dive, I said to my coach, why didn't you make me learn the new dive way earlier?" she said.

"But everything happens for a reason.I'm glad it came before the Olympics."