by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

“Don’t give up until your fear gives in.”

That may sound like wisdom from a great philosopher, but it’s actually an oft repeated line by 9-year-old Claremont resident Emma Wirtz.

Over the last 18 months, the rising Chaparral Elementary School fifth grader has been conquering her fears and making a name for herself as a gifted diver on the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center’s dive team.

Emma Wirtz prepares to dive at last year’s summer camp at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Photo/courtesy of Amanda Wirtz

A milestone moment in her first season with the 11-and-unders came in May when Emma finished 22nd at the 2026 USA Diving Junior Circuit Zone F Championships in Flagstaff, Arizona against divers from California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada. Coupled with consistent top 10 finishes at local and regional events, she has qualified for the Amateur Athletic Union Diving National Championships in July in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Last season as a 9-and-under Amateur Athletic Union novice, Emma was ranked in the top 10 in the nation for one-meter divers and in the top 20 for three-meter competitors.

Emma began diving in 2023 at age 7 when her parents enrolled her in a summer dive class at the Claremont Colleges. She took to it immediately.

“I’ve always loved the water,” Emma said.

“She is our fish,” said her mother, Amanda Wirtz. “Every time we’re at a pool, she’s the first one in and the last one to get out.”

Emma then began working with the Claremont Pomona Dive Club at Mt. San Antonio College before joining the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center dive club, where she’s been competing for 1 ½ years.

Head coach Jean Luc Miralda described Emma as “a breath of fresh air.”

“You know, it’s kind of hard already to find anybody under the age of 9 who is willing to pay attention as much as Emma, who was able to do that particularly on day one,” Miralda said. “She’s striving to performance with excellence as much as she can … Her excitement for the sport is contagious within the water and is also contagious outside of the water.”

Emma competes in six meets per year in the one- and three-meter diving events for Rose Bowl Aquatics, a nonprofit team with competitors ages 5 to 93.

She practices in Pasadena three times a week, working on multiple dives — a 1 ½, inward, front side tuck, backflip, half twist, and more. She shared what it’s like to master a new technique.

“If it’s super hard, you’re really, really happy,” Emma said. “If it’s easy, you’re still happy, and it just makes you feel good because you achieved something new.”

Diving does have its challenges. “But the thing that keeps having me come back is the encouragement that my friends give me, and my coaches,” Emma said.

The sport has taught her mistakes are part of life and how to separate awkwardness from fear. “I try my best to ignore the embarrassment that I have,” she said, “and I just keep trying my best.”

“Emma as a person has grown so much from diving,” Amanda Wirtz said. “One of the things that I used to say last year when people would be like, ‘How do you do it? That’s really scary to jump off of a three meter board backwards and do a flip and all the things.’ And I said she’s fearless. She’s totally fearless.”

Claremonter Emma Wirtz poses with her first place medal from the 2026 Rose Bowl Diving Invitational. Photo/courtesy of Amanda Wirtz

(L-R) The Wirtz family, Marc, Emma, and Amanda, at the 2025 Amateur Athletic Union Diving Red-White-Blue Regional Championships at Mt. San Antonio College. Photo/courtesy of Amanda Wirtz

As Emma learns from diving, so do her parents from her.

“I see her do hard things and I’m like, if Emma can do hard things, I can do hard things,” Amanda Wirtz said. “I think her determination has been really motivating to me. That she has this mentality of never giving up, even on hard days when she has flops.”

Emma said she loves the fun and challenges, but is mindful of pushing too hard.

“I want to make sure that I have the same mindset, so if I ever feel like it’s too much, I know that it’s time to take a quick pause, maybe like a month, and then come back to it afterwards,” she said. “That’s kind of what we do during the summer.”

“We talk about the fact that if there’s a birthday party, that we give her the choice: do you want to go to your friend’s birthday party or do you want to go to dive meet?” her father Marc Wirtz said. If she says, “‘I’ll go to a friend’s birthday party.’ Okay, we’re not going to go to dive meet then. And that’s fine. She gets to make those choices because we don’t want to force her into anything. And it’s just been fun.”

Emma said she hopes to continue diving at Claremont High School and maybe in college. For now, she’s enjoying summer before traveling to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah for a weeklong summer camp.

Aside from diving her interests remain rooted in the water: she hopes to one day become a marine biologist.

“I love animals, especially frogs and marine animals,” she said. “I like a lot of art. I like reading. I like stuffed animals, science. I really enjoy school a lot.”