Caeli McKay

Biography

Caeli McKay is a four-time medallist at the Pan American Games who won her first medal at the World Aquatics Championships in 2023. 

McKay stood on her first senior national podium when she was 14, placing third behind her idols Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion in the 10m platform at the 2014 Winter Nationals. Two years later, she left her family behind in Calgary to move to Montreal to train in the high-performance environment.

When Filion retired following the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Benfeito was in need of a new 10m synchro partner, which she found in McKay. For a time, the two lived together as the veteran Benfeito helped the teenaged McKay acclimatize. In their first international competition as a duo, they won FINA Diving Grand Prix silver in Rostock, Germany in February 2017. After two fourth-place finishes, they won their first FINA Diving World Series medal together, taking silver in Kazan, Russia. They would finish fourth in McKay’s debut at the World Aquatics Championships.

In 2018, McKay and Benfeito won 10m synchro silver at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. At the most prestigious competition of the year, the FINA Diving World Cup, they won the bronze medal.

McKay and Benfeito started 2019 by reaching the podium in their first three FINA World Series events, winning two bronze and a silver. Once again, they finished fourth at the World Aquatics Championships, but McKay had an individual breakthrough, reaching the 10m platform final and finishing seventh. At the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, McKay and Benfeito won 10m synchro gold and finished 1-2 in the individual 10m event with McKay taking home the silver.

In February 2020, McKay and Benfeito won 10m synchro gold at the FINA World Series in Montreal before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all competitions. When they resumed, they won gold at the FINA Diving World Cup in May 2021 to secure their spots in the event at Tokyo 2020. McKay also earned the biggest individual medal of her career to that point as she won bronze in the 10m platform. Just before the national trials in late June, McKay badly sprained her ankle during dryland training. With limited training ahead of her Olympic debut, McKay finished fourth in the 10m synchro event with Benfeito at Tokyo 2020.

In 2022, McKay finished fifth in the 10m platform at the World Aquatics Championships and followed up with a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games. She did that while continuing to experience great pain in her ankle, so in October 2022 she underwent surgery. 

She returned to competition at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup in Montreal in May 2023, finishing fifth in both the individual 10m and 10m synchro event with new teenage partner Kate Miller, for whom McKay would now take on the role of mentor. McKay went on to win her first career medal at the World Aquatics Championships, earning bronze in the 10m platform. She capped off her summer season with a 10m synchro silver medal at the World Cup Super Final, the first podium finish of her partnership with Miller. They went on to win 10m synchro silver at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games where McKay also won an individual 10m bronze. 

At the 2024 World Aquatics Championships, McKay and Miller qualified themselves for Paris 2024 with their sixth-place finish in the 10m synchro event. The followed up with a pair of synchro silver medals at the World Cup in Berlin (where McKay also won 10m bronze) and the World Cup Super Final in Xi’an, China.  

A Little More About Caeli

Getting into the Sport: Started diving at age six after attending an intro to diving summer camp run by the Dive Calgary Club… Had been inspired to take up the sport while watching Olympic medallists cry on the podium during Athens 2004… Outside Interests: Enjoys outdoor sports in her spare time, such as fly fishing, mountain biking, snowboarding and hiking… Odds and Ends: Married to two-time Olympian diver Vincent Riendeau…