Former Weston diver making waves in NCAA

For Charlotte Martinkus, Weston’s all-time greatest diver and a five-time Ivy League champion, her introduction to the sport was a little bit like being dropped in the deep end.

A longtime gymnast until her freshman year of high school, Martinkus began suffering injuries related to the sport and, after a little recruiting from Claude Valle – a Weston swimming and diving legend himself – decided to give diving a shot.

“I honestly hated it at first, but I didn’t really like gymnastics anymore and I was getting injured a ton. And my mom was like, ‘You have to do another sport,’” Martinkus said in a Zoom interview from Princeton University, where she finished up her undergraduate degree earlier this month. “When you first start diving, it’s really rough because you have to learn all of the dives that other people have, and learning new dives is really scary … Once I got over that hump, I just took off with diving.”

From there, Martinkus joined Boston Area Diving in Concord, as well as Weston High School’s team. It was in high school where the newly minted diver began to make a name for herself.

In a program that has developed numerous Division I divers, including several who claimed records at Boston College and Harvard University, Martinkus excelled. She won an all-state title in 2021, a state championship in 2022, was named a four-time All-American diver and holds all of the school’s girls diving records, according to Jim McLaughlin, Weston High School’s swimming and diving head coach and longtime math department head.

McLaughlin said Martinkus excelled both in the pool – where she performed “dives so difficult that they are rarely seen at the college level” – and in the classroom due to her “relentless work ethic.” In short, he added, she “exemplified everything that you want to see in a student and athlete.”

“Not only was she a phenomenal diver, she was also an amazing teammate and leader on the team,” McLaughlin said. “She did whatever was necessary for the team, including swimming on relays when needed. When you have your best athlete setting this kind of tone, it has such a huge impact on the team.”

All of these high school accomplishments came as she was being recruited by several colleges, dealing with the pandemic and a fractured back her junior year, which required six months in a back brace.

Sarah Altman, an assistant coach with Boston Area Diving who coached Martinkus in her senior year of high school, said Martinkus was a motivating presence for other divers on both teams. She added the diver’s determination, even after a potentially career-altering injury, is one of the keys to her success in and out of the pool.

“I never heard her make excuses for herself, even when she was injured. As a diver, it’s really easy to avoid certain drills or dives because you’re scared or tired,” Altman said. “I don’t even think those thoughts ever crossed her mind. As soon as she was on deck, she knew exactly what she needed to do and got it done. I’m sure she takes the same approach in other aspects of her life, which is why she has so many accomplishments in and out of the pool.”

While Martinkus excelled in high school diving, she took another step forward at the collegiate level. At Princeton, pool time is more widely available for practices – a high school practice might be 90 minutes, while a college session is closer to three hours – and she had more access to strength training and sports psychology, which helped develop her diving prowess further.

“I was like a shock to the Ivy League my freshman year, which was super cool. I remember being a newbie and showing up to other pools, and I wasn’t really thinking about breaking records or anything, I was just trying to dive,” she said. “I got a lot stronger here in college because they make you lift a ton, so I was in great shape and I was learning new things in diving, and it was awesome.”

Partway through her sophomore year at Princeton, she suffered a major setback, fracturing her back again. There was, however, a silver lining: her injury occurred just before the deadline for medical redshirt eligibility, an NCAA policy allowing athletes to retain a year of eligibility if they suffer a season-ending injury.

Despite the injury, Martinkus is a five-time Ivy League champion, taking home three 1-meter diving championships and two 3-meter titles. She isn’t done yet either. After earning a degree from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, she is using her final season of eligibility to attend the University of Michigan, where she is pursuing a master’s degree in management and continuing her career.

All of this comes as she was invited to participate in USA Diving’s Winter Nationals event, where she took fifth place, qualifying her for April’s Canada Cup of Diving.

“I’ve never represented Team USA like that before, which was super awesome,” she said, noting it was a chance to receive new coaching, as she got to work with the national team’s staff. “It was such a great opportunity.”

As she prepares for the final chapter of her college career, Martinkus said her approach to diving is fairly simple: she loves the underdog mentality and “chasing people,” even if that changed a little bit while racking up Ivy League accolades.

“Diving is a scary sport, it’s very mental. I have the strength, I have the coordination, but it’s a very mental thing to control your body to do scary things,” she said. In college, that mentality changed a bit once she started racking up Ivy League accolades, so she turned to sports psychology to help her manage the performance anxiety. “That’s been my biggest mental challenge at Princeton, and it’s helped me grow a lot as a diver because I’ve been forced to feel more confident in my own performance.”

A move to Michigan brings a change in competition, too. While the Ivy League produces many strong swimmers, the Big Ten will bring some stiff competitors.

“It’s going to be so different,” Martinkus said. “I’m excited to be competing against these people all the time, and I’m wondering how I can grow that way.”