David Riccio, The Daily Telegraph
August 8, 2016 6:25am

Story from PerthNow

EVERYTHING was against them.

For Maddison Keeney, it was the critics who have pointed to the YouTube video before every major meet.

That sixty-second clip of Keeney tagged ‘epic fail at the world titles,’ which has been clicked 52,000 times.

She’ll never overcome her battle with nerves, the critics kept saying.

For Anabelle Smith, it’s the recovery from a severed finger three years ago, which was so horrific she needed to learn how to use her hand again.

There was the wild and windy weather in Rio too.

Which at the open-air Maria Lenk Aquatic centre, blew the signage off scaffolding just meters from the diving platform and threatened the 3m synchronised diving final.

And of course, there was the scoreboard.

You want an example of Australian spirit?

At one stage in the final, they sat last in the field of eight.

“But our coaches, they’re unbelievable,’’ Smith said.

“They’ve always got hope and they’ve always got faith and they always just cheers us on and say ‘don’t worry about it - just focus on this next dive’ and that’s what we did.’’

Incredibly, with the words of their mentors in their minds, Keeney and Smith catapulted from fifth to third with their final dive - a two and a half-somersault twist-pike which scored 71.10 - which deserves to be replayed 52,000 times this morning.

“It’s crazy because I think we both thought that our last dive wasn’t that good,’’ Smith said.

“Like I felt really far forward and I came up thinking ‘oh, I’m going to be so much further out than Maddie’, but she said the same thing so I was like ‘oh, that worked out well’.

The Aussie duo were forced to wait anxiously as arch-rivals and fourth-placed Canada performed their final dive, which could’ve seen them knock the Aussies off the bronze medal podium.

But they couldn’t.

“The last two years Canada have always beaten us by a small margin so for us to come out on top by a small margin is crazy,’’ Smith said.

Keeney, having had her charachter and mental-strength tested by social media, didn’t waste the chance to have the last laugh.

“I want to silence the critics a bit about my nerves,’’ Keeney said.

“I think the media just blows that a bit out of proportion.

“I have had lots of problems in the past, but I think I’ve grown a lot as a diver over the last couple of years and months and I’m ready.’’

Cheered on in the stands by chef de mission Kitty Chiller, Keeney and Smith’s bronze medal ensures Australia have now collected a medal in diving at every Olympics since Sydney in 2000.

“We both feel like we’re dreaming and it’s not really real,’’ Smith said.