Q&A with Team GB: Get to know Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen

Diving 27 Aug 25

From unconventional bottle opening techniques to being a scaredy cat, there is more than meets the eye with Scarlett Mew Jensen and Yasmin Harper.

The diving duo recently made it a hat-trick of World Championship podiums in the 3m synchro with a silver medal in Singapore, to go with the Olympic bronze they claimed last summer in Paris.

In this Q&A with Team GB, Harper and Mew Jensen reveal each other's musical tastes, shared sporting inspirations and earliest diving memories.

What are your first memories of stepping onto a diving board?

SMJ: I was seven when I first started, so it’s been a long time. I didn’t see it as a career until later. I loved it, I started at Crystal Palace so it was a bit of an interesting venue, very iconic, but it took me an hour and a half to get there every day, so it was big commitment. But I loved it so much, so it was something I kept coming back to and kept wanting to go to. I did gymnastics, similarly to Yas. But I didn’t like it, I was terrified of landing on my head!

The water is a bit of a softer thing to land on. I was a bit keener on messing up there.

YH: I didn’t start until I was nearly 14, which is pretty late for diving. I did gymnastics before that, but the acrobatic style gymnastics. When I was 13, I was part of the GB team for that for a brief time until I stopped and basically decided that I wanted to do something else.

My dad called Sheffield Diving and said my daughter would love to come and try diving. So I started in 2014, and I’ve been with the same coach, Tom (Owens), since I started, which is a long time.

From the start, I kind of envisioned being good. I distinctly remember coming in for a trial session and Tom asked me: ‘what would you like to achieve in diving because you’re pretty old, it’s hard when you are this old?’. I remember saying I’d quite like to be good at it. That’s where it started and I’ve had a steady upwards path since then.

Have you always loved the water?

YH: I’ve always loved swimming, from when I was a kid. I loved the sea. Differently to Scarlett, I actually had no fear as a child and have got more fear as I’ve got older, which is lovely!

SMJ: The thing is I probably had less fear than the average person, but more fear than most kids who were there at the time. It was something I noticed in the group of people I was with. Everyone would just do it and I would think ‘right, let me just think about what could happen’. I overanalysed it, but obviously as I’ve got older, my skills have got better.

I loved the water though. My dad got me into swimming when I was younger, I used to swim most days a week, he was a big swimmer so he just brought us to the local pool and we’d be chucked in and told ‘off you go’.

What is the other person’s best quality in their diving?

YH: I know what yours is!

SMJ: Go on then…

YH: Yours is your ability to just land on your head every time on the three dives we do together. It’s very consistent.

SMJ: I’ll take that. I would say your best quality is your back and reverse.

YH: Which is not what we do together!

SMJ: True, it’s not in the synchro necessarily but I think that you’ve... maybe mastered is a bit nice…

YH: That’s a bit generous, I’m not sure mastered is the word.

SMJ: But you have a very good understanding of that skill, and I can really appreciate that for you because I don’t understand it. For me, what your saying is I understand the front rotation.

YH: Yeah, you’re more natural on that.

SMJ: The back and reverse is very foreign to me, so I can appreciate how well you do it. My body doesn’t do that.

YH: It does! It just hasn’t for a while.

SMJ: It hasn’t for a while, and the last time it did it was not good!

If you weren’t a diver, what would you be?

SMJ: I’d probably be a runner, a sprinter or something.

YH: I always said I would probably do heptathlon if I wasn’t diving. We’ve got EIS (English Institute of Sport) here in Sheffield.

SMJ: If diving wasn’t on the table, do you think you would have stayed in acro?

YH: No, I was done with that.

SMJ: I might have done dance, ballet. That was the other thing that I kept on doing with diving. I felt like it contributed really well. Balance and leg line and elegance is very tied in with diving. I loved it, I loved moving and did it to A level, so it’s maybe something I’d have taken a bit further.

That leads us onto your sporting inspirations?

YH: I would say Jess Ennis, she was someone that I thought was very cool.

SMJ: Obviously we have to say Tom (Daley). In the diving world, he has done so much for us as athletes, representing us. There isn’t that much out there for us to be represented by, specifically to diving, not just aquatic sports. He’s been a massive poster boy for us. But to other people, not just us, he’s that sporting inspiration. He is the Jess Ennis to other people. It’s nice to be on that close friends basis with him and be able to reach out to him with questions, whether it’s diving or knitting or whatever! Not that I’m reaching out about knitting!

My mum taught me when I was young so I know how, I just don’t have a desire to knit a jumper.

YH: Think about how much money you’d save!

What is the other person’s hidden talent?

SMJ: I’m not going to be obvious and say nail art because everyone knows that. You can open a bottle with your tooth, can’t you?

YH: That’s terrible, I feel like I’m being outed on that one!

SMJ: Sorry! But you can!

YH: Ok, I can’t believe you remember that one!

SMJ: Of course, mate. I don’t know if I’ve got one.

YH: I don’t know if this is a talent as such but you love your fashion and picking out outfits. You love that and obviously you do it every day but I don’t know if people know you have a passion for that.

SMJ: Yeah, it’s a bit hidden.

YH: A hidden passion if you like!

What's your go-to karaoke song?

SMJ: Mine is Material Girl by Madonna.

YH: I would not have had you down for that.

SMJ: I think it was the go-to song when I was younger. My brother would always win because he was louder but I was better.

YH: You’ve got more tune to you! I’ve heard those tunes in the shower. I’d probably go for a classic, like Fleetwood Mac, Everywhere.

If I was to pick one for you, I’d think something like Sabrina Carpenter.

SMJ: Maybe, or maybe a musical classic like Defying Gravity. Hit that high note.

YH: Singing is not my forte.

SMJ: I think if Yas could do one, it would be no words and just scratching on the decks!

Ok, moving onto Worlds. How special was that?

YH: I loved it. When I think about those Worlds, it kind of reminds me of our first World Championships together.

It was a great day. I don’t think we could have had a smoother experience. Although in the prelim, there was a lot of bad stuff going off. I think there were seven failed dives in our event, which is a lot. Normally you might see one or two. There was a lot of bad diving going on so we were holding ourselves together, keeping calm.

SMJ: I was speaking to my dad today and he asked me how it felt. I think it was very different to Japan (Fukuoka 2023). That was our first one and there was a lot riding on that with the Olympic selection and wanting to qualify. It didn’t take its toll but there was a sense of anxiety.

This time, for me, and we’ve discussed it on multiple occasions that we wanted to show who we are and our talent. Paris was something we would never have dreamed of but we wanted to solidify that we are still top three and nothing has changed. Going into LA, this is what we want to keep going.

I think we did that with flying colours. Prelim, final, it couldn’t have gone better. As Yas said, I don’t know what was going on, what was in the air, but we just kept our heads level. We were very consistent.

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