A two-time Olympic diver from Dover, New Hampshire is coming out of retirement hoping to compete in Paris.
Jessica Parratto is preparing for the Olympic Diving Trials starting June 13 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
“Pretty much from day one. I was a diver,” said Parratto. "My parents are both swimming coaches and my mom is also a diving coach. It was just a family affair. It was my dad on the swimming side coaching my sister. And then on the diving end, it was her coaching, me. So it was just really special to grow up that way. And I kind of just fell in love with the sport.”
Growing up on the pool deck in Dover, Parratto says she was just having fun flipping around, but she didn’t have to look far for inspiration.
“I think watching my dad, coach Olympic swimmer Jenny Thompson was definitely the part that, you know, put me just in a headspace of, oh, maybe that's something that I would want to do one day, but I never thought it would become a reality until way later on in my life.”
When she was 14, Jessica Parratto moved to Indiana to train at USA Diving’s national training center. She lived with a host family for six months until her parents could join her.
“My parents, when I asked them about it, they were never like, oh, you should go for it. They were like, nope, this is a decision you need to make. If this is something that you want to do in your life and you're passionate about it, then you need to go for it,” said Parratto.
She dove in, training seven hours a day.
“When I first moved there, I was very intimidated. I was surrounded by national champions, you know, Olympians and I was like what am I doing here? I just didn't feel like I fit in,” said Parratto. “I really just wanted to get a college scholarship, maybe go to like, nationals one day and I was I was able to kind of progress from there.”
By the time she was 17, she qualified for her first world championships and the next year, her first Olympics, placing seventh in Rio.
“Rio was definitely where I was like, okay, I know that I can be up here with the best in the world. But before that I just didn't know,” said Parratto. “My coach would tell me all the time in practice and in training, like, you can do this, I believe in you and I, I think I wanted to believe him, but I just needed to believe it myself first. So once that happened, I think there was a big shift in me mentally.”
She competed in Tokyo with confidence.
My big mantra that day was want it more than everybody else and that’s what I kept repeating in my head that day
Jessica Parratto
“My big mantra that day was want it more than everybody else and that’s what I kept repeating in my head that day,” she said.
Parratto earned a silver medal in the synchronized 10m platform, with her diving partner Delaney Schnell. She captured the moment she brought her medal home to her parents, who couldn’t be there with her because of the pandemic.
After years of coaching Olympics athletes who won a dozen medals, it was the first time her father held one.
“To be able to hold mine and just to share that experience and be like, you know, look at what we did. Like, it's not just me, but like them. So, it was like their moment too. It just, it's beyond special.”
Adding to the weight of this moment, Parratto went into the Tokyo Olympics deciding it would be her last.
“I think I was just really ready to move on with my life. I was really happy, content, at peace with what I'd done in my career and especially after that, getting an Olympic medal, which I never thought I would. So then, I just kind of wanted to have some time where I was with family,” said Parratto.
After spending quality time living with her sister who had just had a baby, she is back--this time she hopes to share a gold medal with her family in Paris.
More on the Paris Olympics
“It would be so crazy. I mean, three Olympics. I mean, I can't really ask for that much more. I never thought that I could say that in my career. So, it's just really special, to be able to experience also another, normal games, which I'm really, really looking forward to. And just especially having my family there would mean the world to me. So that's kind of what I really look forward to the most,” said Parratto.
She gives thanks to all of her hometown support.
“It's a small town in New Hampshire, but there's so much pride there. There's so much, you know, success in swimming and diving. And I think my parents have a lot to do with that, which is really special. You know, they were able to really give Seacoast Swimming Association a name there. And, you know, it's just a really special thing that I was able to grow up in and witnessed my parents doing what they did every day on the pool deck.”
And of course, her parents.
“My mom is such a huge, pivotal part in my career because I think a lot of people don't know that she coached me in diving growing up until the age of 14, and she was so, so vital in that. And just like what my mindset is and being able to stay in the moment and just the certain mantras that I have every single day now as an adult and going into my third Olympics, she's been such a key for me and just never pushed me into the sport, never made me do anything, that I didn't want to do. This has always been something that came from me. So I think that's really, really important to say because I know that, she's super proud of me. And, this is just as much as her journey as it is mine.”
My mom is such a huge, pivotal part in my career...this is just as much as her journey as it is mine.
Jessica Parratto
Paris could be Parratto’s last time competing in the Olympics, but it’s likely she’ll stay in the Olympic world. She’s interested in sports media and has already won an Emmy for her sports research during the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
US Olympic Diving Trials are Jun 17, 2024 - Jun 23, 2024 in Knoxville, Tenn.
