RIO GRANDE VALLEY – From Uden, The Netherlands to competing in the European Aquatics Championships, junior Manou Meulebeek has grown into a leader, diver, and as a person at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV).

For Meulebeek, representing the Netherlands at the European Aquatics Championships was the realization of a goal that had been nearly a year in the making. After months of training, increasing the difficulty of her dives and learning to manage the mental demands of elite competition, the UTRGV diver finally found herself on one of the biggest stages of her career.

"I was smiling on the board," Meulebeek said. "I was smiling after my dives. I was so happy with how it went."

For UTRGV Diving Coach Jennifer Mangum, seeing that moment unfold was particularly rewarding as an active mentor in her journey from the very beginning.

"I'm very proud of Manou," Mangum said. "One of the things that we had talked about last year as she was training was trying to increase some of her degree of difficulty and get ready to try to make a spot to qualify for the European Championships."

It wasn't something Meulebeek accomplished simply through her performances as a collegiate diver in the United States. She earned a place on the travel team for The Netherlands and had to compete at her home country's national championships. To qualify for larger international competition, she needed to finish among the top two divers in her respective events.

"She earned her spot through a national competition," Mangum said. "It was very pressure-filled because you have to perform on that day."

Her performance earned her a spot on the Dutch team for the European Championships in Paris and sent her to a Diving Grand Prix in Bolzano, Italy, where she would begin preparing for the championship stage.

For Mangum, the achievement represented the payoff of months of work.

"She had been shooting for that for about a year," Mangum said. "So, when she actually did qualify for the European Championships, I was super thrilled for her because that was her goal."

At the Grand Prix, Meulebeek competed against approximately 30 divers in the one-meter springboard against athletes from countries across Europe. She finished 17^th after scoring 213.35 points in the event on May 7.

Meulebeek saw an opportunity to embrace the chaos and seize the chance to perform her best.

"I was just kind of like, 'Let me just see how this goes and just see other divers, what are they doing?'" Meulebeek said. "And let me learn from that."

That mindset became one of the defining characteristics of her experience. Rather than focusing on who was ahead of her, Meulebeek focused on what she could learn from them.

She watched their technique, studied their entries, and paid attention to their body positions and execution. The best divers weren't simply completing their dives. They were executing every detail with incredible consistency.

Preparing for a Championship Unlike Any Other

In the United States, national-level diving competitions feature athletes from a massive country with a deep talent pool. In Europe, the structure is different with numerous countries competing against one another, the European Championships bring together the best divers from across the continent.

"It's a very big deal," Mangum said. "The European Championships is a huge meet because it's all the best of Europe against each other. It's very, very prestigious."

The work leading to Paris began long before Meulebeek ever boarded a plane.

At UTRGV, she and Mangum spent the previous season working to increase the difficulty of her dives while continuing to develop the consistency necessary to compete at a higher level.

One of the biggest changes was the addition of a reverse twister, a type of dive that is fun to watch, but hard to master. Mangum described it as a significant upgrade from the twisting dive that had previously been part of Meulebeek's list.

"That was something that we specifically worked on for this," Mangum said. "Manou has been working so hard, and I can't take all the credit, it makes me happy to see her perform."

For Meulebeek, diving had been about managing the nerves that came with stepping onto the board. At the European Championships, Mangum wanted her to approach the moment differently, to embrace the pressure instead of fearing it.

"Just the general training mindset at meets, learning how to embrace the big pressure meets and not be so scared of them," Mangum said. "That mental preparation became perhaps the biggest takeaway from the experience."

Time to Dive

For Meulebeek, instead of being consumed by nervousness, she was simply happy to be there. Taking Mangum's advice, Meulebeek felt an overwhelming sense of relaxation on the board.

"I actually loved being here," Meulebeek said. "I enjoyed standing on the board. I loved seeing the stands and crowds."

That shift in mindset was significant, for an athlete competing internationally, the temptation can be to focus entirely on results.

Meulebeek instead focused on the experience and the results followed. She finished 17th in the one-meter event, scoring 218.35 points, surpassing the goal of 215 that she set entering the competition.

She was five spots away from reaching the final, a gap of about 13 points. For Meulebeek, the result confirmed something she had hoped to discover, that she belonged on the boards with some of the best athletes in the world.

"It was my first European experience, my first experience in such a big competition," Meulebeek said. "It was very nice to see that I did feel like I belonged in that group."

Unable to make the trip, Mangum witnessed the same thing from home, not just at the championships but the entire summer. Mangum stayed connected with Meulebeek throughout the summer. Meulebeek sent training videos and they exchanged messages about how she was feeling physically and mentally.

When the European Championships finally arrived, Mangum woke up early to watch her student-athlete compete on the biggest stage of her career.

"I actually got up early the morning of the European Championships and watched her event online," Mangum said. "That was great fun."

For a coach who had spent the previous year helping Meulebeek prepare for that exact opportunity, seeing her perform was a moment of pride and joy.



From the RGV to Paris

Although Mangum could not be physically present on the pool deck, the work done in the Rio Grande Valley traveled with Meulebeek. So did the support of her UTRGV teammates, for Meulebeek, her teammates have become a second family during her time in the Valley.

That support system was especially meaningful while she was representing the Netherlands thousands of miles away from campus.

Family and friends also traveled to see her compete, giving her familiar faces in the stands.

"When you're sitting on the board, you know that you have such a big support group," Meulebeek said. "It meant so much to me knowing I have a ton of support."

The moment represented more than an individual accomplishment.

It connected the different chapters of Meulebeek's life, her childhood in the Netherlands, her development as a diver, her decision to attend UTRGV and the international career she continues to build.

Competing and meeting divers from countries this summer, Meulebeek discovered that diving can create connections that stretch across the globe.

She even met one of her biggest idols in the sport, Australian diver Alysha Koloi, and the two exchanged national team shirts.



Bringing the Lessons Home

Meulebeek returned to UTRGV with more than a 17th-place finish. She returned with a new understanding of what separates the world's best divers from everyone else. The European Championships showed her specific technical areas she wants to improve, including cleaner entries and stronger execution.

It also showed her that the gap between where she is and where she wants to be is not as large as it might seem. She was close, now, she wants to get closer.

For Mangum, that means continuing the progression Meulebeek began last season. This year, the coach wants to see greater consistency, particularly on the three-meter springboard.

"One-meter was very successful last year, and three-meter was getting better," Mangum said. "We want to be a little more consistent and just feel comfortable with the list that she's doing."

The goal is for that consistency to translate into stronger performances at the conference and NCAA levels.

Meulebeek has an even bigger goal in mind, the NCAA Championships.

"I genuinely just want to keep improving," she said. "I want to keep getting new records, and I would love to see if I could qualify for the NCAAs this year."

Her European experience has given her another reason to believe that goal is possible, but more than that, she's just ready to smile on the board again.



Support UTRGV Swimming & Diving | Become a Fan on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter | Follow us on Instagram | Follow us on YouTube