After finishing her studies at Texas Christian University and retiring from diving last year, Deighton was looking for a new challenge.
The South London native missed the diving community, and, wanting to still be involved, made the decision to travel to New Zealand and see what opportunities arose.
Deighton, 23, found her niche, joining Diving Otakou as their new head coach and has felt right at home.
Her great-uncle, Willis Arbuckle, lives in Dunedin, and Deighton is living with her mother’s cousins, Karen and Lex Lane.
Deighton has enjoyed the past month with Diving Otakou and is embracing the new challenge with the club.
She arrived in Dunedin with a strong background in the sport, which began as a child at Crystal Palace in South London, and won a national title for the 1m board when she was 17.
"That’s kind of when I found my love for diving," Deighton said.
"It was a bit of a shock. I didn’t think in my head . . . I was good enough to do it.
"I know how important it is to be successful at a competition and a lot of the divers here see themselves as underdogs. I want them to experience the same excitement at a national competition."
She was awarded a scholarship to Texas Christian University in 2018, where she was the first diver from her university to 10 years to qualify for the NCAA zones competition.
She broke the university’s platform records in 2021, and was named diver of the year in 2021 and last year, before returning to England.
Back home, she worked as a trampoline coach — most divers come from a trampoline or gymnastics background — to help extend her knowledge, before coming to New Zealand.
Diving Otakou has about 60 divers, which she hopes to increase to between 75 and 100 next year, and plans to visit schools across the city in February.
"As soon as you see diving and you come for one taster session you want to do it again."
The club struggled with limited pool time at Moana Pool, and she wants to create more structure in their programmes.
There were talented divers in Dunedin, including Theo Smith who qualified for the junior world championships last year, she said.
"I want to come in and motivate them to dream big which I’m all about."
Diving is a sport which constantly pushed athletes boundaries and helped them develop, one of the main reasons Deighton became a coach.
"The feeling of a kid when they do a good dive, or anyone, it’s just like they come up and they’re like ‘oh my gosh, I just did that’.
"It’s that amazement that kind of keeps me coming back."
Deighton, who has a background in child psychology, also wants to create a class for divers with additional needs in the future.
But for now she is enjoying settling in and hopes to help the club any way she can.
"We really want to develop this club and we really want to have Olympians here like they have in Auckland.
"I’m just really excited for the future of this programme, really."
