En route to second Olympics, Aranza Vazquez finds peace of mind

Long before Aranza Vazquez Montaño steps on the diving platform, she turns her attention inward.

Sometimes that means connecting her noise-canceling headphones and listening to Spanish music or heart-thumping classic rock, 像邦乔维或史密斯飞船乐队. 其他时候，巴斯克斯会埋头读书.

No matter what, the Carolina senior tries not to watch her competition. Vazquez doesn’t want to see how the other divers are faring. 她不想知道他们的分数. 巴斯克斯创造了她自己的小世界, and she stays in it until her body plunges into the water below.

结果很难反驳.

Not only is Vazquez one of the most accomplished student-athletes at Carolina – having won four NCAA championships in the last two years – but the native of La Paz, 墨西哥, has evolved into one of the top divers in the world.

在几天之内, Vazquez will compete in her second straight Olympic Games, 代表墨西哥队参加巴黎奥运会.

“老实说，这是一种祝福，”巴斯克斯说. “I dreamed of going to one Olympics, and now I’m going to my second one. 所以这有点令人兴奋. I’m just super grateful and so excited to see how I do in this competition. 只是有很多情绪.”

那些情绪——压力, 聚光灯下, an entire world watching — haven’t always been easy for Vazquez to navigate.

2021年从东京奥运会回来之后, where she finished sixth in the women’s 3-meter springboard competition, 巴斯克斯感觉到了什么 她形容这是后奥运会时期的萧条.

Suddenly, the joy of competing was replaced with anxious perfectionism. After competing at the world’s highest level, Vazquez put immense pressure on herself. She couldn’t allow herself to be anything less than perfect. 做不到意味着让别人失望.

这需要时间, but Vazquez has since developed strategies – like wearing headphones before meets – to manage those sky-high expectations, 和卡罗莱纳的跳水教练一起工作 Yaidel Gamboa 和 体育系的运动心理学项目.

“那一刻一点都不好玩, struggling to find myself while competing after the Olympics,巴斯克斯说. “But now that I look back at it, I learned so much, and I’m grateful that happened. 事情的发生是有原因的.

“I feel like that mental aspect – knowing how to handle the pressure and the expectations from outside the sport — definitely helped me. 这是我更倾向于研究的东西, knowing that if I’m not mentally ready or mentally prepared, 我的身体也没有准备好.”

By cultivating her mental skills, Vazquez has been able to maximize her natural, physical abilities.

在海滨城市拉巴斯长大, 巴斯克斯4岁时开始潜水, working with a coach to learn the proper techniques. By the time she was a teenager, Vazquez realized she was one of the top divers in 墨西哥. 从那时起，她就把目光投向了奥运会.

Traveling to Tokyo in 2021 as the first female Olympic diver in Carolina history brought that dream to life, 但巴斯克斯渴望得到更多. 在过去的两个大学赛季里, Vazquez broke through her post-Olympic depression to win national titles in the NCAA 1-meter and 3-meter competitions in consecutive years — Carolina’s first diving national championships.

现在，巴斯克斯正在为她的奥运返场做准备.

“I’m hoping and I really am dreaming of a medal, and I think it’s doable,巴斯克斯说. “But whatever the result is that day, I will give 100%. 这是最重要的.”

Vazquez is letting go of her anxieties and perfectionism. She’s not focused on her competitors or the rest of the world watching — just the platform and the pool.

剩下的会自己处理的.