10 Feature
Eden Cheng, pictured front, performing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this summer
n Olympic feat We have no less than three living Olympians within our Alleyn’s alumni community; Terence Higgins (Dutton’s 1946), Zara Long (Brown’s 1989) and Eden Cheng (Roper’s 2021).
Eden Cheng (Roper’s 2021) took up diving after being inspired during the 2012 London Olympics. In less than a decade she made it from Olympic inspiration to Olympic participation. She joined Crystal Palace Diving and after a string of significant successes as a junior, won her first senior major medal in 2018 at the age of 15, when she took gold medal at the European Championships in the 10m platform synchro with Lois Toulson. Successes continued including winning silver at the 2019 European Diving Championships held in Kiev, in the Mixed 10m platform synchro with Noah Williams and bronze in the team event. At the recent 2021 FINA Diving World Cup held in Japan, Cheng and Toulson won silver in synchronised 10m platform, thereby securing their qualification to the
Olympics and achieving two personal bests. The pair also won silver in synchronised 10m platform at the 2021 European Aquatics Championships. This summer, Eden and Lois finished seventh in their 2020 Olympics debut. Having performed so much better in training, the duo admitted to being a little disappointed, but we think it a phenomenal achievement and know we’re going to see a whole lot more of Eden in years to come. The highlight of the Games for Eden was performing on the world’s biggest stage and getting to speak with many of her sporting heroes like Sir Andy Murray, Geraint Thomas OBE, Adam Peaty, Allister Brownlee and Max Whitlock, many of whom she’d watched at London 2012. She described having childhood
inspirations wish her luck as she passed by in the Team GB block as an incredible experience, as was speaking to many elite and experienced athletes from all sports, learning something about their own disciplines, listening to their journeys to the Games and even getting some advice about future games. According to Eden, ‘It was a lifelong dream come true’. One of Alleyn’s newest alumni having left School in summer 2021, Eden is taking this year to concentrate on her diving and focusing on the major diving events coming up such as the World Championships, The Commonwealth Games and the Senior European Championships before taking up a place next year in the States at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on a full sports scholarship.
