U.S. Vaulting Team Individual Female competitor, Tessa Divita comes from a family with many international championship vaulting medals. Divita’s sister Ali and mother Julie have successfully competed in Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) vaulting all over the world. Divita has proven to be a force in her own right. Since her first CVI3* as an individual female in 2016, Divita has placed in the top-three, five out of the six times she’s competed. Earlier this year, Divita competed at the World Equestrian Festival CHIO Aachen in the CVIO4* for the first time as part of the U.S. Vaulting Team that competed in the Nations Cup. This week, at the FEI World Equestrian Games™ (WEG) Tryon 2018, she will vault as an individual on Romeo, a bay nine-year-old gelding lunged by Christoph Lensing.

While Julie will not be lunging for Divita at this WEG, it will be the mother-daughter duo’s second WEG together. Julie and Divita come from Portola Valley, Calif. and competed together at the WEG in 2014 where Tessa was on the U.S. Vaulting Team squad and Julie was the lunger.

During the 2018 WEG, the U.S. individuals must compete in three routines, including a compulsory test, a technical test, and a freestyle test. With great costumes and music, Divita will prove to be a force for the individual competition. She said, “Just being here is great. We are peaking at the right time and ready to compete. We are friends with so many of these vaulters from all over the world and to be doing on this journey, we are winners already.”

Divita continued, “This whole experience has been so wonderful. I remember being eight and sitting in the audience in Aachen in 2006, watching Mary [McCormick] and Elizabeth [Osborn] compete, and now I get to compete with them. I have always looked up to them, and now I get to be one of them." 

Divita competed at three of the 2018 Selection Trials for the WEG, placing first at the Mozart Memorial Vaulting Classic and Selection Trials, fifth at Garrod’s Spring Classic, and second at the Heart of the Rockies.

About her mom being her teammate and coach, Divita shared, “I started vaulting when I was five, and now I’m 20, so that is 15 years we’ve been working together. She's my mom, and she's my coach. She has lunged and coached me at a few competitions this year in preparation for these big championships, which is really fun. We have an excellent relationship. Vaulting brings us together in a very unique way. It's one of those sports where I am an equal partner with my mom, and I really like that.”

Julie shared, “We are really good at compartmentalizing the tasks that we are doing.. When we go to vaulting, I go into coach mode, and she goes into athlete mode. She is a very professional athlete. We really put on our go-to-work brains.”   

Tessa’s freestyle routine and music will be from Little Red Riding Hood. She shared, “In the beginning, I'm walking through the forest and halfway through the music changes, and then it's kind of a fight between the wolf and me."

Julie said, "It's a great routine."  

Cheer on Tessa Divita as she is coached by her mother, Julie Divita, this week at the WEG!