Gary Hunt

Hunt grew up in Leeds, England, and moved to Southampton after his parents, Pamela and Peter, separated. As a child, he followed his two older sisters into ballet, tap, modern dancing, and competitive swimming. Bored by swimming, he switched to diving. He attended Solent University and joined the Southampton Diving Academy.{{cite web | last=Rice | first=Xan | title=No coach, no agent, no ego: the incredible story of the 'Lionel Messi of cliff diving' | website=the Guardian | date=2023-02-16 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/feb/16/no-coach-no-agent-no-ego-lionel-messi-of-cliff-diving-gary-hunt | access-date=2023-02-19}}

Before a meet, Hunt prepares by juggling, which he says slows his mind. He qualified for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, and placed third in the synchronised 10m platform event with Callum Johnstone. Hunt first began diving from above 10 metres in 2006 when his coach recommended him for a pirate show in the resort town of Lido di Jesolo. Hunt suffered from mental issues after the death of his best friend and fellow diver, Gavin Brown, in 2007.{{r|rice}}

He made his Red Bull debut in 2009. When not competing, Hunt played a Tarzan-like character at the Walygator Grand-Est in France for several years, where he met his partner, Sabine Ravinet. Hunt quit amusement park performances in 2013. At the World Aquatics Championships, he won a silver medal in 2013, and a gold medal in 2015 and again in 2019. He plans to compete for France at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Hunt has no coach or agent, and his only corporate sponsor is Budgy Smuggler, an Australian swimwear company. Competitor Steven LoBue described Hunt as "the Michael Jordan, the Muhammad Ali, the Tiger Woods" of cliff diving.{{r|rice}}

2009 marked the beginning of Hunt's professional career in the sport after several years of training and competing in high diving events to build up his confidence and technique. He was quick to impress and finished 3rd, 3rd, 2nd and 2nd in the first 4 events of the series in France (La Rochelle), Netherlands (Rotterdam), Croatia (Dubrovnik) and Italy (Polignano A Mare).[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/ICY-EXPERIENCE-021238611228783?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Icy Experience"][http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/CRANE-LIFTS-ORLANDO-DUQUE-TO-VICTORY-021242745271436?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Crane Lifts Orlando Duque to Victory"][http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/DUQUEBROVNIK-021242745674443?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Duquebrovnik"][http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Duque-Rides-the-Storm-021242753111538?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Duque Rides the Storm"]

His impressive start to the season meant he was in 2nd place in the overall championship at the halfway stage, 18 points behind 9-time World Champion Orlando Duque who had been dominating the 2009 season once again.

At the 5th event of the series in Turkey (Antalya), Hunt introduced his first new dive – a previously unattempted back piked 3 somersaults with 4 twists.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nZdrSg72lE "Youtube – Gary Hunt – Quad twisting triple"] The dive has a difficulty rating of 6.2 and is the most difficult dive to be performed in any form of competitive diving. Although he was only able to finished 3rd at this event,[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/SILKY-CZAR-UNSETTLES-THE-DUKE-IN-ANTALYA-021242757653795?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Silky Czar Unsettles the Duke"] the new dive got a huge amount of attention, opened the eyes of the cliff diving community and began to cement Hunt's reputation as a fearless daredevil who was going to push the sport to new levels.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Video/Nr.-134-021242762953114 "Red Bull Cliff Diving – NR.134 (Story Clip about the Triple Quad)"]

At the 6th event in Germany (Hamburg), Hunt achieved his first win, again using the triple quad. With Orlando Duque suffering from minor injuries and finishing 4th, Hunt closed the gap in the overall championship to 12 points.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/The-Hunt-is-on-021242764608057?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – The Hunt is on"]

At the 7th event in Switzerland (Sisikon), Hunt came 2nd by the narrowest of margins but was again able to stay ahead of Orlando Duque who finished 3rd. Hunt closed the gap in the championship to 9 points and was the only diver that could potentially beat Orlando going into the final event.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Photo-Finish-021242779410718?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Photo Finish"]

At the 8th and final event in Greece (Athens), Hunt introduced his 2nd new dive, another very technical dive with a very high difficulty rating – a forward piked 4 somersaults with 1.5 twists. With his second win of the series, and with Orlando finishing 4th, Hunt tied Orlando on points in the overall championship. However, Orlando was awarded the overall championship due to the fact that he had won more individual events over the year.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/The-Hunt-is-over-as-the-Duke-sneaks-home-021242781499782?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – The Hunt is Over"]

After finishing joint 1st in 2009, Hunt immediately resumed his rise to the top in 2010. Now confident with his 2 extreme dives,[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/The-fear-factor-021242847593511 "Red Bull Cliff Diving – The Fear Factor"] Hunt dominated the first event of the year in France (La Rochelle) and won comfortably, achieving scores of 10,10,10,9,9 for his final dive.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/The-hunter-is-now-the-hunted-021242848270958 "Red Bull Cliff Diving – The Hunter is now the Hunted"][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpGyV2w2sOM "Youtube – Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010 – France Highlights"]

At the second event of the year in Mexico (Ik Kil), Hunt extended his lead on the series with another win. Once again his extreme dives with their high degree of difficulty were credited as the reason for his success.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Hunt-out-in-front-021242857909028 "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Hunt out in Front"][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAiWNorFWyo "Youtube – Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010 – Mexico Highlights"]

A good lead in the overall championship allow him to change his front piked 4 somersaults 1.5 twists into 4 somersaults 2.5 twists.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Hunts-dive-for-perfection-021242875308172 "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Hunts Dive for Perfection"]

At the third event of the year in Norway (Kragerø) Hunt made it three wins out of three events.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Three-wins-out-of-three-for-Hunt-021242875949421 "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Three Wins out of Three for Hunt"][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAvT3zLGzEs "Youtube – Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010 – Norway Highlights"]

Hunt felt that the fourth event in Italy (Polignano A Mare) was the right time to unveil his new move – the running take off into front piked 4 somersaults 2.5 twists.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Prepare-for-take-off-021242878932058?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Prepare for Take Off"] As a requirement of the series, any diver wishing to use a new or unconventional dive must demonstrate the dive to the judges in practice sessions prior to the main competition in order to prove that they are capable of executing the dive. The judges have the power to stop an athlete using a particular dive in competition if they feel it is likely to be dangerous, and there was a lot of talk of this nature surrounding Hunt's new dive. Hunt was able to execute the dive during this practice session, finishing a little short but doing enough to convince the judges and once again made history in the sport with the first ever running take off.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Star-Hunts-spectacular-new-dive-021242881685512 "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Star Hunt's Spectacular New Dive"] Unfortunately during the main competition Hunt performed the dive during the 3rd round of dives and received the most serious injury of the 2010 world series, when his entry point into the water coincided with the crest of a wave, meaning that he finished very short and took a large impact to his chest and head. He was taken to hospital with minor concussion but released later the same day with no further injuries or symptoms.[http://www.itv.com/meridian-west/divers-dice-with-death17175/ "ITV News – Divers Dice with Death"] Despite this, he was still able to finish 3rd at the event, due to a near-perfect triple quad during the 2nd round of dives.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Third-time-lucky-for-Silchenko-021242882232002?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Third Time Lucky for Silchenko"]

Following the accident in Italy, Hunt chose to shelve the running take off dive for the time being, and returned to winning ways at the fifth event of the year in Switzerland (Sisikon) with another dominating performance, and another first for the series – Hunt achieved a points total of 417.50, the highest ever and the only score above 400 of the series.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Hunt-on-verge-of-triumph-021242895200366?pageOrigin=RedBullMEA "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Hunt on Verge of Triumph"][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIcfFxAB2zI "Youtube – Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010 – Switzerland Highlights"]

At the sixth and final event in Hawaii (Hilo), Hunt finished second to Orlando Duque but only needed one point from the event to win the series, and was crowned World Champion on 12 September 2010.[http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Orlando-blooms-as-Hunt-is-crowned-champion-021242901362929 "Red Bull Cliff Diving – Orlando Blooms as Hunt is Crowned Champion"]

Hunt won his 6th Red Bull Cliff Diving World series with 1350 points, 320 ahead of his nearest rival.[http://www.itv.com/news/2016-10-31/red-bull-cliff-diving-brit-crowned-world-champion-as-cliff-divers-dive-by-night-in-dubai/ "Briton crowned cliff diving world champion after night flight in Dubai"]

Hunt won his 7th Red Bull Cliff Diving World series with 1010 points. {{Citation |title=Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2018 Italy LIVE | date=23 September 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed4QWB0z6f8 |language=en |access-date=2019-09-19}}

Hunt won his 8th Red Bull Cliff Diving World series with 1160 points.

At the Red Bull Cliff Diving in Lebanon, in July 2019, he became the first diver in the series history to receive a perfect 10 score from each of the five judges. {{Citation |title=Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series LIVE in Bilbao, Spain | date=14 September 2019 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYVm0w6S7w4 |language=en |access-date=2019-09-19}}

Hunt won his 9th Red Bull Cliff Diving World series with 800 points.https://www.redbull.com/au-en/athlete/gary-hunt {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}

Hunt won his 10th Red Bull Cliff Diving World series with 1240 points.https://www.redbull.com/au-en/athlete/gary-hunt {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}

{{reflist}}

{{commons}}

• {{Sports links}}
• [http://m2006.thecgf.com/Participants/Participants?ID=103996 Gary Hunt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210917203054/http://m2006.thecgf.com/Participants/Participants?ID=103996 |date=17 September 2021 }} at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games
• [https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/feb/16/no-coach-no-agent-no-ego-lionel-messi-of-cliff-diving-gary-hunt No coach, no agent, no ego: the incredible story of the ‘Lionel Messi of cliff diving’], Xan Rice, 16. Februar 2023, The Guardian - special about Gary Hunt

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Gary}}

Category:1984 births

Category:Living people

Category:English divers

Category:Male high divers

Category:World Aquatics Championships medalists in high diving

Category:Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in diving

Category:Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England

Category:Divers at the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Category:Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Category:European Games competitors for France

Category:Divers at the 2023 European Games

Category:Naturalized citizens of France

Category:Alumni of Southampton Solent University

Category:Divers at the 2024 Summer Olympics

Category:Olympic divers for France