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Cassiel Rousseau is most at ease as a performer. A gymnastics and sports acrobatics prodigy, he was invited to join a circus and appeared in a series final of Australia’s Got Talent by the age of 11.
Rousseau soon left the big top and television talent quests behind, and is now performing on a global stage as a diving world champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist with a grander prize in his sights. The 23-year-old will enter the Paris Olympics as one of the leading contenders in the 10m platform after becoming Australia’s first world champion in the men’s event in Japan last year.
“I was very introverted, and I’m still very shy,” Rousseau tells Guardian Australia. “But when I’m diving, or when I was performing in the circus, I am very confident in my ability. There was lots of performing [as a child], so when I am competing, I’m very good at performing. It helps with my nerves. That’s why I kind of thrive in a performing or competing state.”
While Rousseau’s time spent with circuses on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane was short-lived, his older sister Elodie went on to join Cirque Du Soleil in Las Vegas. Cassiel instead turned back to acrobatic gymnastics before flipping over to diving in 2017.
It has been a rapid rise for Rousseau since then, crowned Australian elite junior champion a year later, reaching the final in the 10m platform at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and recognised by World Aquatics as their diver of the year after his World Aquatics Championships triumph.
“I do this sport pretty much just for fun and enjoyment,” Rousseau says. “And I enjoy performing and competing. Ever since I was a little kid through acrobatics, and also being in the circus, it’s something that I’ll just naturally do.”
Rousseau passed up the opportunity to defend his 10m platform individual title at the most recent world championships in Doha, instead focusing on the 10m synchronised event alongside one-time mentor Domonic Bedggood. The pair finished sixth, and crucially in the top seven, to secure an Olympic quota spot for Australia, which is now all but theirs as the only entrant in the event at the Australian Open Championships to be held in Adelaide from 5 June. The national championships will also serve as Australia’s Olympic trials, with Rousseau needing to finish in the top two to confirm his place for the 10m platform individual event.
Cassiel joining the Australian Olympic team in Paris will complete a novel circle for the Rousseau family, after his grandfather Michel was part of the French squad at the 1956 Melbourne Games. Michel took home the track cycling individual sprint gold medal from those Olympic Games, after earlier that year winning the first of three consecutive world championships in the same event.
“Talking about him [in the build up to the Paris Games] has made me more motivated,” Cassiel says about his grandfather, who passed away in 2016. “I’m not necessarily looking to follow in his footsteps, but if I were to win a gold medal, it would be such a cool kind of experience.
“Just him going through the same, winning worlds then he won the Olympics … if I achieve what he achieved, that would be something special.”
Rousseau’s Parisian-born mother ensured the family hung onto their French connection even while living in Queensland. Birthdays and family gatherings were celebrated with pastries from a traditional bakery rather than cakes, and at least in the early years the language was the primary one spoken at home.
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“My French is horrible,” Rousseau says. “I wish I stayed on top of it. My first language was French when we were born in Australia.”
“Mum tried her best to keep it at a good level but obviously having seven kids [Cassiel, as a twin, is technically sixth in line] is a bit hard. The eldest has pretty much perfect French, and as you go further down the line of the family it just gets worse and worse.”
Whether Rousseau can repeat his grandfather’s success and bring home gold will likely come down to how he performs against competition from China, after being the only diver from outside the world’s dominant diving nation to win a world championship in 2023. Yang Hao took back the 10m platform crown for China in Doha earlier this year, with reigning Olympic champion Cao Yuan second, as Rousseau sat out the event.
Yang also claimed his third consecutive synchro world title alongside Lian Junjie, while the duo have combined to take out every stop of the Diving World Cup this year including in the Super Final held in Xi’an in April where Rousseau finished sixth.
“I think that was a wake up call, it was a very big kick in the bum,” Rousseau says about the most recent international diving event. “I did get a little bit complacent in that competition. I probably strived for a bit more than what I should have, but now I feel a lot more motivated. I have a lot more fire in me for the Olympics.”
“I don’t think the field will ever balance out, in a way. China will always be pretty much the dominant country in my event and in the sport. But if they show cracks, I’ll be ready to pounce.”
