Key Takeaways
- Andrea’s Italian mother and French father made significant sacrifices for her career.
- She debuted internationally at age 13.
- British diving’s future is bright with Andrea and Lois Toulson.
British professional divers Lois Toulson and her partner Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix secured a bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, marking Andrea’s first Olympic medal.
Andrea, 19, and Lois Toulson, 24, embraced joyfully and were emotional after finishing third in the women’s synchronized 10-meter platform event.
Born on September 11, 2004, Andrea is a London native who represented Team GB in the 2024 Olympics.
Andrea is the daughter of French hotelier Fred Sirieix and his former partner Alex Spendolini.
As a child, she told her father she was “half-half”—French, Italian, and British. Team GB is glad she chose to dive for her birth country.
After the medal ceremony, Fred, the star of First Dates, said,
It’s always a roller-coaster with you girls, you really took me round the bend and through the mill but that last dive was spectacular. I’m just in awe with what they have achieved. I’m so proud, so proud, I’m bursting.
Andrea said her Italian mother and French father made great sacrifices for her dreams. She said,
There’s no amount of thank yous that can repay everything that they’ve done, and so I hope that this is a starting point.
As a child, Andrea attended Harris Academy Bermondsey and was scouted by Crystal Palace Diving Club.
While she grew up in aesthetic sports, Spendolini-Sirieix struggled with the pressure to fit the sport’s ideal body image. She told,
From such young age, from the age of eight, I was already very exposed with my costume and everything. I feel like even now, sometimes I struggle with… I don’t want people to just tune in because they think, ‘Oh, these girls are good-looking, so I’m not looking at the sport, I’m looking at their bodies’.
She debuted internationally at 13 in 2018 and won her first solo gold medal at the 2020 FINA Diving Grand Prix.
In her standout 2022, she clinched titles as a World junior champion, two-time European senior champion, two-time Commonwealth Games champion, and a World senior medallist.
Moreover, she was named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2020 and shortlisted again in 2022.
In July 2023, Andrea secured a silver medal in the Women’s 10m synchro event at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships alongside Lois.
Furthermore, British diving’s future is promising with Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and three-time Olympian Lois Toulson winning bronze at Paris 2024, behind China and North Korea.
Meanwhile, Chinese couple Chen Yuzi and Quan Hongchan were the runaway leaders with 359.10 points.
Whereas North Korea’s Kim Mi-rae and Jo Jin-mi were second with 315.90 points.
Lois Toulson Real Life Partner
Lois Toulson and Jack Laugher, both professional divers, have been in a happy relationship since January 2017.
Their shared passion for diving likely brought them together. The couple enjoys many common interests beyond their sport, including food, music, humor, and baking.
They also share similar values. Toulson mentioned in an interview that Laugher was initially more eager about the relationship, while she gradually warmed up to the idea.
Laugher, a British diver who specializes in springboard diving, achieved Olympic success by winning a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Summer Games.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix’s father is a French maître d’hôtel.
- Moreover, she was just 16 when she reached the 10m platform final on her Olympic debut in Tokyo.
- Her uncle, Pierre Lao-Sirieix, is a director of AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company that helped develop a vaccine for COVID-19.
