Mana and Pono. Power and balance. Tracing cliff diving back to its origins takes us to the 18th century, to the shores of Hawai‘i, and to the king whose name is now borne by the highest trophy in Red Bull’s premier circuit for the discipline: King Kahekili. Centuries later, Lele Kawa has shed the ritual dimension it once possessed, when it served as a test of courage among the foremost warriors of the Kingdom of Maui, yet its fundamental essence endures.

Mana and Pono. Power and balance. Around these principles, seemingly so divergent, there continues to revolve a ludus, understood in its most anthropological sense, that has evolved over time into a sport capable of inspiring wonder across every latitude of the globe. The cultural legacy King Kahekili inscribed into history has found its most worthy contemporary custodian oceans and continents away: Australian Rhiannan Iffland.

10 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series titles in 10 seasons. 48 event victories. The figures alone begin to describe the magnitude of an athlete who first turned her discipline into an object of fear and meticulous study, then into an athletic-performative art governed by the continual pursuit of perfection, however utopian. Ten years of dominance articulated through the same principles associated with King Kahekili. Mana and Pono. Power and balance.

Another season at the summit, sealed at the final stop of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in Polignano a Mare, offered a way of understanding what it means, in the life of Rhiannan Iffland, to dive towards perfection. And towards the future of a sporting art that has made her its queen.

You started diving at the age of nine, although you have often admitted that you froze on your very first dive. Even today, you say you still feel a sense of fear every time you step onto the platform. Looking back at those beginnings, and at an emotion that has never entirely disappeared, how did one of the greatest high divers in the history of the discipline emerge and establish herself?

“With great difficulty, a lot of hard work and persistence. I’ve been diving since I was nine, so I think those feelings, and particularly the fear we talk about so much, simply become part of you. Fear is 100 per cent part of what I do. I literally fell in love with cliff diving. I became far more passionate about this form of the sport than I had ever been as a kid doing Olympic and conventional diving. There is a real sense of freedom in cliff diving, and I think that helped me establish myself because I was always chasing that feeling: the freedom, doing something I loved, overcoming challenges, turning up every day with something in front of me to work towards. I became a little addicted to it. I just kept riding that wave of confidence, with all the ups and downs that came with it. Then, once I started winning and reached the top of my sport, I became addicted to something else. It was no longer only about the locations or that feeling of freedom; I became addicted to being really good at something. That drives you from within to keep pushing yourself. I love everything about this sport. Sometimes I hate the fear. Sometimes I hate being in really uncomfortable situations. But once I’ve done it, there’s this feeling of being completely alive… and it makes you want to go back for more.”

Some believe that the perfect dive is a utopia. In your case, however, perfection can seem almost within reach, as reflected in an extraordinary succession of records and achievements. What does the idea of perfection mean to you? And how does your pursuit of it interact with a discipline such as high diving?

“Perfection is really difficult to achieve in a technical sport like diving. On a single dive, I’ve only managed it once, and come close perhaps twice. To me, perfection is about consistency, but also about understanding that not everything is going to be perfect. I think accepting that contributes to the pursuit of perfection itself. Everything has to align for something to be perfect, especially in a sport where a dive lasts only two seconds. A lot of things have to go right within a very short amount of time: physically, mentally, and in terms of the conditions, which also need to be on your side. So perfection is incredibly difficult to achieve.”

We strongly believe that every sport is, in its own way, a form of art. What makes high diving an art form in its own right? When you perform, do you ever feel like an artist as much as an athlete?

“Diving in itself is artistic. When I think about the amount of time I’ve spent trying to make a dive look graceful, making sure all the lines and positions are right, from my fingertips to my toes… I remember being younger and having my coaches tell me, ‘No, your fingertips are out of place. They need to be in the right position.’ So, when I think about a dive as an art form, for me it is definitely about style and grace. But it’s not only that. It’s also about the flow and rhythm of the dive, moving from one position to another and making those transitions look seamless. That’s a really beautiful thing. Then you bring all of those elements into an incredible setting like Polignano, and you see how the images come to life through video and photography. When all of those things align, it becomes a beautiful moment of art. If you can push the fear aside, I think there are moments when you can feel like an artist, although that becomes harder with the more difficult dives. When you’re doing something like a single flying somersault, for instance, you can actually feel, while you’re in flight, how your body looks in the air. You can adjust it and think, ‘Okay, this is more beautiful.’ So yes, I suppose I can feel like an artist. I’d never really thought of myself that way until now.”

The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series continues to offer you the opportunity to express your talent in extraordinary settings, including Polignano. What do you feel as you prepare for and execute a dive in such remarkable settings? And when you consider that high diving has taken you to places you might otherwise never have encountered or experienced, what does that privilege mean to you?

“That’s something really special, and I think a lot of athletes feel the same way. It’s something that drives many of us. We visit incredible destinations and immerse ourselves in so many different cultures. You also build friendships with people from all over the world, and you really get to know other people and places in a way that you might never have the opportunity to otherwise. It’s difficult to experience that same level of immersion simply by travelling on your own. It has really become a part of me. I’m 35 now, and I’ve been travelling since I was 21, when I first started travelling through diving. When I look back, I think: ‘wow, what a special decade it has been.’ The younger version of me could only have dreamt of visiting all these places. That’s very cool, and it’s definitely one of the things that keeps me in the sport as well.”

After 10 consecutive World Series titles and 48 event victories, what still draws you back onto the platform, with thousands of eyes upon you? At this stage of your career, what kind of relationship do you have with the discipline that has made you its undisputed queen? 

“I’m going to be a bit vulnerable here. I’ve just won my tenth World Series title, and I struggled with some injuries after that event, so I feel like I’m in a very strange place at the moment. Obviously, I love what I do, but when something like that happens, you’re on such a high, and then you have to ride the emotions and the waves that follow. In a way, the Polignano stop felt like a victory lap, but it was strange not to feel that much pressure. For me, that actually makes the sport more frightening. When you’re competing under pressure, you know: this is your moment, this is when you have to do the dive, and this is when you have to do it well. When I don’t have that pressure, there’s more freedom, but I find it harder to compete and to put myself in that same mindset. As for the future, I’m not hanging up my swimsuit yet. No way. One of the really interesting parts of my journey is that I’ve gone through a number of generations within the sport. I’ve seen how much it has grown, especially for women. I’ve seen the direction it has taken, and it keeps progressing. I suppose I’ve been one of the pioneers of that, and I want to see where it goes next. So I think that’s the next goal: to keep pushing the sport forward and to keep up with the youngsters. There’s always something new to discover in a sport like this, something that keeps driving you and makes you excited about it.”

As you said, in recent years, the women’s side of high diving has grown considerably, helped by a circuit such as the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. What would you like to pass on to the generations of female high divers who will follow you?

“There are a number of things I would say. For example, find the passion in what you do, because this is a scary sport, and without that internal passion, it’s very difficult. I would also say: don’t look too far into the future, because you never know where the next door might lead. Have a big goal, but focus on what’s right in front of you, because otherwise you might miss something shining along the way.”