For Greg Duncan, the hardest part is over. His goal and dream of making the U.S. Olympic team has been achieved.
The 2017 Madison High School graduate recently teamed with Tyler Downs to win the men’s 3-meter synchronized diving competition at the U.S. Olympic trials, and thus earned a berth into the 2024 Games in Paris. At the games, the U.S. pair expects to be in the running for a medal, with the team from China, the heavy favorite to capture gold.
“You have to win to qualify, and we got close at the last U.S. trials,” the 25-year-old Duncan said. “This time it was very close again and it’s so wonderful to qualify. We needed a score of 76 on our last dive [of 12 total] to win, and we got 78. The goal was to finish on top and represent our country, then see what we can do at the games. There will be no pressure at the games like the kind we felt at U.S. qualifying. I had never felt pressure like that before.”
The competition date for Duncan and Downs, age 20, at the Olympics is Aug. 2.
Duncan began synchronized diving while in high school in 2015, with another Madison diver, Grayson Campbell. They competed together for years and had a success, finishing second in the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials.
“Grayson was so much better than me and he taught me a lot,” Duncan said.
Duncan’s synchronized career continued in college at the University of North Carolina, then Purdue University. He and Downs, of Missouri, became a team since those 2021 trials. They teamed to finish fourth in the world championships last year.
“Initially, I never thought I would be very good at synchronized diving,” Duncan said. “Eventually it starting clicking, and I have so many good coaches to thank that I have been connected with.”
As an individual diver, Duncan was a standout at Madison, and Marshall High before that, and for the year-round Dominion Dive Club of Vienna. He finished second and third in the one-meter Class 6 boys state championship meets for Madison in 2016 and 2017. Campbell won the title in 2016.
Duncan also was a standout for the Dunn Loring pool team of the summertime’s Northern Virginia Swimming League, winning season-ending all-star competitions. It was at Dunn Loring when he first became a diver, he remembers in the age 8 to 10 time frame. Duncan went on to coach some for Dunn Loring. He eventually gave up playing organized youth football and lacrosse to concentrate solely on diving.
His younger brother, Sam, also was a diver for Madison, winning a state crown in 2020, finishing second in 2019 and third in 2018. Sam Duncan dives in college for the University of Kentucky.
Two of Duncan’s former local coaches aren’t surprised as his success.
Andrew Foos was Madison’s head swim and dive coach when Duncan competed for the Vienna high school.
“We all knew Greg had the talent and dedication to improve his craft and had the potential to do great things,” Foos said. “He really developed at Purdue.”
Stephanie Sutton is the owner of the Dominion Dive Club in Vienna, where she coached Duncan for nine years, starting when he was 10.
“From the start, Greg had a beautiful line to make a strong entry into the water on his dives,” Sutton said. “He worked so hard and he and Grayson fed off of each other. He never gave up when he felt just short in winning some big events. His hard work finally paid off.”
NOTE: Greg Duncan’s girlfriend of seven years is Maycey Vieta. She will be diving in the Olympics, as well, for the Puerto Rico women’s team in the 10-meter individual competition.
