Chris Mears (diver)

Chris Mears

Personal information
Full name	Christopher James Mears
Nickname(s)	Chris
Born	(1993-02-07) 7 February 1993 Reading, Berkshire
Residence	Leeds
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Sport
Country	Great Britain  England
Event(s)	1m, 3m, 3m Synchro
Club	City of Leeds Diving Club
Partner	Jack Laugher
Medal record Competitor for  Great Britain World Championships 2015 Kazan 3 m synchro Competitor for  England Commonwealth Games 2014 Glasgow 3 m springboard synchro

Chris Mears (born 7 February 1993) is a British diver and DJ/Producer from Burghfield Common, near Reading, Berkshire. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the men's 3-metre springboard individual and synchro events with his teammate Nicholas Robinson-Baker in the latter. The pair won a silver medal during the 2011 FINA Diving World Series, were placed fourth in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and won a bronze medal during the 2013 Diving World Series in Edinburgh. At the Olympics the pair finished in fifth place, while Mears was ninth in the individual competition.^[1]

Mears also participated in the 2012 European Championships, finishing 8th in the 3 m springboard and 5th in the synchro event on the same occasion.^[2]

Personal life

Mears is the son of Paul Mears. His biological mother died from breast cancer when he was a toddler. His father then married Katy. Mears has an older sister, Natalie and a younger brother, Charlie. He currently lives and trains in Leeds. He is in a long-term relationship with Natalie Campbell. Mears has actively supported athletes being open about homosexuality in sports, posing for Gay Times Magazine in January 2013 and also releasing a press statement in support of his friend Tom Daley on Chris's official Facebook page in December 2013.^[3]

Diving

Early career

From a young age, Mears attended diving classes at his local club in Reading. Over the years he climbed up the ranks on a national scale and in 2008 he won the 1m and Platform titles at the British Elite Juniors then claimed three individual medals at the European Junior Championships. He moved to train with coach Lindsey Fraser in Southampton's high performance centre alongside Peter Waterfield. In 2008 he also began synchro with Blake Aldridge and individually competed on a world stage at World Junior Championships placing 7th, qualifying for the Youth Olympic Festival.

Injury

Mears suffered a ruptured spleen in January 2009 while he was training in Sydney for the Youth Olympic Festival. He was suffering from glandular fever but was not displaying the usual symptoms. His organs were squeezed by swelling, and further aggravated by the impact of his dives. This caused his spleen to rupture. After losing five pints of blood and being given a 5% chance of survival by doctors upon admission to the hospital, he was told it was likely he would never dive again. For several days he was kept alive by medical intervention and his platelet count was at 2. Upon discharge, Mears remained in Australia until fit to fly. However his family returned to their hotel room one morning to find him having a seizure on the floor. Mears suffered a 7-hour seizure in total which led to a three-day coma. Usually someone suffering something of this scale would be expected to have suffered irretrievable brain-damage and physical disabilities. He later described arguing with the doctors telling him it was Thursday, that he was certain it was still Monday. Despite being told that he would never dive again, Mears made a slow introduction back into diving, and went on to compete eighteen months later at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India. He does however still to this day have a trademark 12-inch scar down the middle of his abdomen, curtailing his abdominal movement.^[4]

2010

This year marked Mears's return to the sport after his injury. On a National stage, he competed again with Nicholas Robinson-Baker in synchro, claiming Gold at National Cup and again at National Championships. He miraculously placed 4th with Robinson-Baker at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, a mere 18 months after his ruptured spleen.

2012

Having won Gold at National Cup in 2011, and Bronze at British Championships, Mears was in a strong position to be considered for the 2012 Olympic team. 2012 saw him take silver at National Cup and Bronze at British Championships. On 11 June 2012, the British Olympic Association announced that Mears had been selected to represent Great Britain in the 3M springboard and 3M sychro, at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Mears's father, Paul was nominated by the B.O.A to carry the Olympic Torch during the 70-day relay in recognition of the time he spent at his son's bedside during his severe illness in 2009. Mears made it to the final of the men's 3M springboard, placing 9th. His last dive was scored at 100.70, the highest scored dive of the competition. Mears and Robinson-Baker placed 5th in the sychro.^[5]

2013

Mears did the World Series circuit with partner, Robinson-Baker for synchro and also competed individually. The pair won bronze in Edinburgh and bronze twice in Guadalajara, Mexico. Mears also scored a total of 455.50 points- fourth position in the individual 3m in Guadalajara, Mexico- his best individual World Series performance to date. Mears and Robinson-Baker ended 2013 ranked seventh best in the world by FINA.^[6]

2014

Mears spent the beginning of the year recovering from an ankle injury at the Team GB Intensive Rehabilitation Facility at Bisham Abbey and so did not commpete at 2014 National Cup in Southend.^[7] At the start of the year Mears relocated to Leeds to train alongside his new 3M Springboard partner Jack Laugher. The John Charles Centre for Sport is one of the UK's high performance centres for Diving, and plays host to all 3M competitors competing for the British Diving Team.

Music

During the recovery period from his brush with death, Mears took up music production as a hobby whilst bed-ridden. He spent a few years working on Electronic Dance Music and House Music in his home-made bedroom studio. In 2012, after the Olympics he signed with Insanity Artists booking agency.^[8] His first large scale performance was on 29 May 2013 at Woodstoke Festival supporting Labrinth and Pendulum.^[9] In February 2014 Mears released a preview of three new tracks on his Soundcloud page, with more music and festival appearances anticipated later in 2014.^[10]

Other appearances

• Mears featured alongside Tom Daley and other members of the British Diving Team in their comedy lip-sync video of LMFAO 'I'm sexy and I know it', which was shot in Australia.
• In 2013, Mears was named one of Attitude Magazine's Hottest 100 Men on the planet.

Diving achievements

References

External links

• Chris Mears' official website
• Chris Mears' profile on the London 2012 Olympics website