A diver takes his attempt from one of El Nido’s steepest cliffs. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
EL NIDO, PALAWAN—Cliff diving has it all: characters, spectacle, drama—and quite the following.
So the idea of the extreme sport joining the Olympic Games doesn’t seem as daunting as the dives its athletes perform.
For Orlando Duque, a pioneer of the sport and a legend in his own right, the discipline ticks all the boxes.
After all, several once-niche sports—like breakdancing, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding—have recently found their way onto the Olympiad.
“It’ll take a big effort to really push for it. But the sport has everything,” said the Colombian diver, a 13-time world champion who now serves as Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series’ sports director, during a chat at Small Lagoon in Miniloc Island here.
“We’ve been working hard … to get to the Olympic Games. 2028, unfortunately, the sports have [already] been assigned. But ’32? In Brisbane, in Australia, why not?”
The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series opened its 2025 season in this secluded paradise last Friday, with athletes from around the globe set to tackle three natural dive sites—each one demanding a different approach.
“In Lagen and then in Small Lagoon, it’s so different that it changes every reference point,” Duque said. “You only do, like, one dive and warmup—and then it’s competition time. It’s very quick.”
That was just one of the ways the sport sets itself apart from traditional pool diving, which has been a fixture in the Olympic Games since 1904.
“Diving in the pool is pretty much the same everywhere you go, yeah?” said Duque. “Here, everything changes—and that keeps them (the divers) thinking.”
Return to paradise?
Duque is open to the idea of staging the four-leg series’ finale in El Nido, and he’s also hopeful that could help manufacture the Philippines’ first-ever homegrown bet.
So far, Xantheia Pennisi is the lone competitor with Filipino heritage. Her mother was born in Tarlac. She is currently ranked seventh in the women’s derby led by defending champion Rhiannan Iffland.
“I’ve been in the sport a long time. I’ve [known] some divers that back in the day were just watching [and] are now competing,” Duque said.
“Inspire the local people, let them take up the sport—and in a few years, when we’re back here, you’ll have a Filipino diver, you know?”
And if that happens then maybe, just maybe, the Olympic dream won’t feel so far off after all.
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Inspiring a generation would be the best finishing touch to a sport’s already rock-solid case.
