Molly Carlson

Early life and education

Molly Carlson was born in Fort Frances, Ontario, and lived there for the first year of her life before growing up in Thunder Bay. She has an older sister named Megan, and her mother, Kathleen Trivers, had both children as a teenager. Carlson's parents, Trivers and Jason Carlson, separated when she was a toddler. Her athletic journey began with gymnastics as a young child before she started diving at age nine in 2008, training with the Thunder Bay Diving Club. During her final year of high school, Carlson moved from Thunder Bay to Toronto to focus intensively on training with the goal of making the 2016 Olympic diving team, a period during which she struggled with binge eating disorder and body dysmorphia.

After moving to Toronto for her senior year at age 17, Carlson began attending Florida State University in 2016. She graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. Following her graduation, she relocated back to Canada. Carlson is currently furthering her education in the field of mental health, enrolled in a Master of Arts program in counselling psychology at Yorkville University. Her academic pursuits align closely with her public advocacy work and her stated goal of helping others through speaking and counselling.

Transition from springboard to cliff diving

Carlson's diving career began in standard competitive springboard and platform diving. She was a highly successful junior athlete, qualifying for the 2009 Pan Am Junior Games at age ten and becoming a seven-time national junior champion. Carlson also won two Junior Pan-American championships in 2013 and 2015, and she represented Canada at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, competing in the three-meter event. She was a Junior World Championship finalist in both 2014 and 2016. Despite these accomplishments, her attempt to qualify for the 2016 Olympic team ended with a fourth-place finish at the trials, which prompted her eventual shift in athletic focus.

From 2017 to 2020, Carlson competed for the Florida State Seminoles, achieving significant success in collegiate diving. She earned NCAA All-American honours three times in 2017, 2019, and 2020, and was named the ACC MVP/Diver of the Year in those same years. Her transition to high diving, also known as cliff diving, began after graduation. This shift was prompted in part by a series of wrist injuries that made traditional head-first entries in pool diving difficult. In 2019, she polled her Instagram followers about competing in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, receiving an overwhelmingly positive response that helped solidify her decision to pursue the new discipline, marking the start of her professional cliff diving career.

Professional high diving career

Molly Carlson entered the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in 2021 as a wild card entry for Canada. She made an immediate impact, placing second at her very first event in France and finishing third overall in the series that year. Her breakthrough season came in 2022 when she won the event in Boston, becoming at age 23 the youngest person to win a women's event in the series at that time. For her final dive in Boston, she was awarded the season's first perfect ten score. She also placed second at events in Paris and Sisikon, Switzerland, securing a second-place overall finish for the series. Carlson trains at the Olympic Pool in Montreal, which houses the world's only indoor 20-metre platform, under the coaching of Stéphane Lapointe.

In 2023, Carlson won the inaugural Canadian Senior High Diving national title with a score of 382.30 and the World Aquatics High Diving title with 374.00 points over four dives. That same year, she earned a silver medal in high diving at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, scoring 322.80 points. During the 2023 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, she placed second at the first four events, won the event in Mostar, and finished second overall with 990 points after a fourth-place finish in Auckland. Her consistency earned her a spot in the 2024 series, where she again placed second overall, marking her third consecutive year as series runner-up. In Montreal, her best dive scored 103.60 points in part due to a perfect ten, the first ten in the women's competition that year. Carlson did not compete in the final event in Sydney due to a knee injury but still secured second overall. Beyond the cliff diving series, Carlson also won the first World Aquatics High Diving World Cup event of 2024 in Bahrain with a score of 328.20 and a silver medal at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships.

The 2025 season presented challenges, including a fifth-place finish at the first stop in El Nido and a foot injury from a practice slip in Polignano a Mare that forced her withdrawal. She placed ninth at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. Carlson returned to the podium at the start of the 2026 season, opening the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series with a second-place finish in Bali, Indonesia, scoring 329.70 points. Throughout her career, Carlson has been recognized with awards such as the 2022 AthletesCAN True Sport Award for her contributions to sport.

#BraveGang and mental health advocacy

Central to Molly Carlson's public identity is her work as a mental health advocate. She founded the online support community #BraveGang, which focuses on bravery, self love, and body positivity. Through this platform, she openly shares her personal mental health journey, including her struggles with anxiety, body dysmorphia, and binge eating disorder, to provide a community for others to discuss their own experiences. Carlson has expressed a deep passion for mental health, telling CNN that she wants to speak to athletes about prioritizing self care and asking for help to prevent others from feeling the isolation she once experienced.

Carlson credits USA Volleyball player Victoria Garrick as a major inspiration for her advocacy, noting that watching Garrick overcome personal struggles motivated her to do the same for her followers. She has stated that Garrick is her biggest inspiration and that she hopes to meet her one day. Her work in this area extends beyond social media, as she is currently studying counselling psychology. In recognition of her impact as an athlete, creator, and advocate, Carlson was named to the Forbes "30 Under 30" list for sports in 2025, and again recognized in 2026 among the brightest young entrepreneurs for her work.

Social media and content creation

Molly Carlson has built a substantial digital presence by chronicling her high diving career and personal journey online. As of February 2026, she has amassed 3.9 million followers on TikTok and 2.88 million subscribers on YouTube. Her content offers a behind the scenes look at the life of a professional cliff diver, including training, competition, and travel, while consistently integrating messages of mental wellness and body positivity aligned with the #BraveGang community. Her profile description identifies her as a "Brave anxious girly" and "Pro Cliff Diver," reflecting her authentic and relatable approach to connecting with a global audience.

In 2026, Carlson's role as a content creator expanded to the Olympic stage. She was selected to represent Canada at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games as part of the NBCUniversal Creator Collection program, a partnership with platforms like YouTube, Meta, and TikTok. In this professional creator role, she was tasked with telling the stories of the Games through her perspective, with special access in Milan and Cortina. Carlson described the opportunity as a dream come true, allowing her to support fellow athletes and share the heart of the Olympic experience with her audience, which she did through coverage on her TikTok account. She stated that being at the Games gave her the chance to cheer on athletes from around the world, many of whom are her friends.

Awards and recognition

Throughout her career, Molly Carlson has received numerous awards and honours for her athletic performance and her influence beyond the platform. In diving, her accolades include being a three time NCAA All American and ACC MVP/Diver of the Year during her collegiate career at Florida State University. In 2022, she received the AthletesCAN True Sport Award. Her high diving achievements have been consistently recognized with podium finishes on the world stage, including three consecutive overall second place finishes in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series from 2022 to 2024, a World Aquatics High Diving title in 2023, and a World Aquatics Championships silver medal the same year.

Carlson's broader impact was formally acknowledged when she was named to the Forbes "30 Under 30" list for sports in 2025. This recognition highlighted her success as a professional athlete and her initiative in founding the #BraveGang community. The following year, in 2026, Forbes again recognized her, this time on a list of brightest young entrepreneurs, specifically noting her work as an athlete, content creator, and mental health advocate. These honours underscore her position as an elite athlete who has successfully built a platform for advocacy and storytelling, connecting with millions online while competing at the highest level of her sport.

Questions about Molly Carlson

What is Molly Carlson known for?

Molly Carlson is primarily known as a Canadian professional high diver who competes in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, where she has finished second overall three years in a row. She is equally recognized as a social media personality with millions of followers and as the founder of the #BraveGang mental health support community. Her openness about her own struggles with anxiety and body image has made her a prominent advocate for mental wellness in sports. She also gained attention for participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics as a professional content creator.

Did Molly Carlson go to the Olympics?

Molly Carlson did not qualify for the Olympic Games as a competitor in standard diving, placing fourth at the 2016 trials. However, she participated in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina in a different capacity. She was selected as a professional content creator for the NBCUniversal Creator Collection program, where she helped tell the stories of the Games through social media, representing Canada in that unique role. This allowed her to experience the Games with special access while cheering on other athletes.

What is the #BraveGang?

#BraveGang is an online mental health support community founded by Molly Carlson. It focuses on themes of bravery, self love, and body positivity. Carlson started the community to share her own journey with mental health challenges, including anxiety and body dysmorphia, and to create a space where others can discuss their experiences without feeling isolated. The movement is a central part of her advocacy work beyond diving and has become a significant aspect of her identity as a public figure.

How did Molly Carlson get into cliff diving?

Molly Carlson transitioned to cliff diving after graduating from university in 2020. The move was influenced by a series of wrist injuries that made the repeated head first entries required in standard platform diving difficult. She also polled her Instagram followers in 2019 about entering the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, and their positive response encouraged her to pursue the sport, where she quickly found success. She entered her first series in 2021 as a wild card for Canada and placed second at her inaugural event in France.

What are some of Molly Carlson's biggest diving achievements?

Some of Molly Carlson's major achievements include finishing as the overall runner up in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series for three consecutive years from 2022 to 2024. She won the World Aquatics High Diving title in 2023 and earned a silver medal at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships. She also won the first Canadian Senior High Diving national title in 2023, a gold medal at a World Aquatics High Diving World Cup event in 2024, and a silver at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships. In 2022, she was the youngest woman to win a series event at the time.

Sources: Wikipedia and current public reporting, checked by the Novello Desserts desk. Last updated 2026-10-20.