Jun. 27—Dover’s Jessica Parratto will make her second consecutive trip to the Summer Olympics next month, this time with a new partner.
Parratto, 26, and Delaney Schnell will compete in the Tokyo Olympics in the women’s 10-meter synchronized diving competition after winning the event at the U.S. Olympic Team trials in Indianapolis on June 12.
Parratto and Schnell, a 22-year-old from Tucson, Ariz., finished the trials with 930 points. Runner-ups Katrina Young and Murphy Bromberg finished with 888.54 points.
The Tokyo Olympics begin July 23 and the women’s 10-meter synchronized diving competition is scheduled for July 27.
Parratto and Schnell started competing together a few weeks before the team trials after Schnell’s original partner, Tarrin Gilliland, pulled out due to an injury. Before the change, Parratto was going to partner with Amy Cozad Magana at the trials.
Parratto and Cozad Magana took seventh out of eight in the event at the 2016 Olympics. Parratto, an Indiana University alum, also placed 10th out of 10 in the women’s individual 10-meter platform event at the 2016 Summer Games.
Parratto and Schnell placed third at the 2019 USA Diving Winter National Championships.
“Jess and I decided we want to try and not only make the team, but also bring back medals,” Schnell told USA Diving. “I think we just felt that as a pair we would have been the best chance for that.”
Parratto grew up in Dover watching her father, Mike, train Dover native Jenny Thompson, who owns the women’s swimming Olympic record for most career medals (12) and gold medals (eight).
In her freshman year at Dover High School in 2009, Parratto set the state six-dive record with a score of 253.95 points to help the Green Wave win the NHIAA Division I swimming and diving championship.
She and her family moved to Indiana later that year so Parratto could train at the USA Diving National Training Center.
Repeated attempts to reach Parratto through USA Diving were unsuccessful.