Kaylea Arnett is an American

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...

diver. She has competed in synchronized diving, individual platform and springboard diving, and high diving. Arnett has also performed with Cirque du Soleil.

Early life and education

Arnett is Chickasaw. She was born in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and grew up on the Chickasaw reservation in Oklahoma. She attended Spring ISD Virtual School and later

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

on an athletic scholarship. While at Virginia Tech, she studied abroad in Japan. She graduated with a philosophy major and a minor in Japanese.

Career

Arnett began diving in 2001, training at the Diving Regional Training Center at

Oklahoma City Community College Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) is a Public college, public community college in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The college was founded in 1972 as South Oklahoma City Junior college, Junior College. OCCC has a current enrollment of 18,549 stud ...

. At age 10 she qualified for the Junior Pan-American Games in Belem, Brazil, and won bronze medals in the 1-meter and platform competition. She won two gold medals and a bronze in the 2007 Junior Pan-American Championships as well as two bronze medals at the 2005 Junior Pan-American Championships. In 2008, Arnett came second in the 14-15 girls 1-meter

springboard A springboard or diving board is used for diving and is a board that is itself a spring, i.e. a linear flex-spring, of the cantilever type. Springboards are commonly fixed by a hinge at one end (so they can be flipped up when not in use), and ...

at the Speedo Junior National Diving Championships. She and Michelle Cabassol won the synchronized platform at the Speedo USA Diving Spring National Championships in 2009. They came third in the women's synchronized 10-metre on the FINA Grand Prix diving circuit that same year. Arnett and Cabassol won gold in the Synchronized Women Platform event at the USA Diving National Championships in 2013. In 2014, she set the record Taishoff pool record on the 1-meter board with a score of 335.85. This record was broken in 2023. She performed at The House of Dancing Water in

Macau, China Macau or Macao is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most densely populated region in the world. Formerly a Portuguese colony, the ter ...

for about five years and then, in 2023, she joined the cast of '' O'' at

the Bellagio Bellagio ( ) is a resort, luxury hotel, and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by Blackstone Inc. and operated by MGM Resorts International. Bellagio was conceived by casino owner Steve Wynn, and was built on the for ...

. Arnett placed fourth in the women's 20-meter at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships. Arnett placed second at the Boston stop on the 2024

Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, established in 2009 and created by Red Bull GmbH, Red Bull, is an annual international series of Diving (sport), cliff diving events in which a limited number of competitors determine the Cliff Diving ...

and at the event in Polignano a Mare, Italy. She placed third at the Montreal event and 5th overall in the series. After the first three rounds of diving at the first World Aquatics High Diving World Cup event of 2024 in

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

, Arnett was in second place overall. As divers competed in the reverse order of their third round standings for the final round, Arnett needed 95.80 to take the lead from Canadian

Molly Carlson Molly Carlson (born September 22, 1998) is a Canadian high diver and social media personality. She is a member of Canada's senior national high diving team and placed second at the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. Carls ...

. Her inward triple with ½ twist pike had a 4.0 degree of difficulty and earned her 78.00 points for third place behind Calrson and

Simone Leathead Simone Leathead (born April 22, 2003) is a Canadian high diver. She placed fourth in high diving at the 2023 World Aquatics Championship and second at the 2024 World Aquatics High Diving World Cup event in Bahrain. She won bronze at the 2024 R ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnett, Kaylea Female high divers 1993 births Living people Virginia Tech Hokies athletes Cirque du Soleil performers Chickasaw people American female divers Chickasaw women 21st-century American sportswomen