Pike Lake’s Rylan Wiens wins Olympic bronze medal

Pike Lake’s Rylan Wiens is bringing an Olympic bronze medal home to Saskatchewan.

The 22-year-old diver finished third in the men’s 10-metre synchronized diving event, along with his partner, Nathan Zsombor-Murray.

It’s the first time Canada has ever won a medal in the event.

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Before heading to the Paris Games, the team of Wiens and Zsombor-Murray was considered one of the teams in the world, but their relationship is a unique one as they barely get the opportunity to train with each other.

“I’ve got to say we’re probably the furthest apart syncro partnership in the entire world right now,” Wiens joked in an interview with 650 CKOM before he left for the games.

“We get to train with each other once in a while. Every competition we go to we make sure we get good reps in, but a lot of it comes down to just being good at diving and then as soon as we go together it’s a couple of minutes of timing up our arm swings,” he explained.

“If you do two good dives at the same time, it’s going to be a good syncro dive.”

Wiens, who is coached by Mary Carroll, out of the Shaw Centre in Saskatoon, said his goal for this Olympics was to bring medals back to Saskatchewan.

He could potentially bring home one more medal for Saskatchewan and Canada, as he’ll compete in the 10-metre individual event on August 9 and 10.