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Matthew Mitcham's gold-medal winning performance at the Beijing Olympics may have boosted diving's national profile but young Canberrans are unlikely to plunge into the sport, due to a lack of facilities.

Those who take up diving in Canberra and succeed in national competition inevitably move away so they can dive all year round.

Calwell teenager Ben Trabinger, who was last month (September 2008) named NSW junior diver of the year, is the latest diving talent to leave Canberra.

While training during summer is fine, the roof-less Canberra Olympic Pool the only pool in Canberra with proper diving facilities closes in the colder months between  March to November.

For the rest of the year, Canberra divers go to a Belconnen gym to jump from trampolines into a foam pit to simulate their diving routines without getting wet.

a cover over the pool which would let us dive all year round,'' Trabinger said.

On the back of his diving achievements Trabinger has been accepted into Trinity Grammar School in Sydney and will have access to all-year round facilities.

''I'm going to be boarding at Trinity, which means I have access to the pool a lot more than here,'' he said. ''In the summer, the advanced class gets to dive three days a week for five months. At Trinity I will get to train whenever I want”.

Diving Australia chief executive director Mary Godden doesn't anticipate any change.
''It really is a catch 22 for us,'' Godden said. ''Canberra is our national capital and is the home of the AIS so I would love to see diving looked after,'' she said.

''But with the number of divers they have down there, against the cost of improving the facilities, it just doesn't work out.''

The success of Australian divers at the Olympics is likely to result in an increase in diving funding.
''Our budget may go up, but none of that money will go into facilities,'' Godden said.