EXCLUSIVE: Iconic Australian destinations on cliff diver Rhiannan Iffland's remarkable bucket list

Running and diving off a platform that is roughly the height of a six-storey building is a gnarly job by any definition.

But for Rhiannan Iffland, it's just another day at the office and she's arguably the greatest to ever do it.

As the 34-year-old prepares for the 2026 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, she's chasing history no-one has ever touched, currently hunting an elusive 10th World Series title.

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What separates cliff diving from traditional pool diving is the raw environment.

Once an athlete climbs that final ladder rung and steps onto the platform 22 metres high, the calm of training evaporates and the stage becomes wild and unpredictable.

Speaking exclusively to Wide World of Sports, Iffland reflected on the immense pressure of staying at the top of her sport and the day she famously achieved a feat nearly unheard of in the sport: A perfect score on the cliffs of Northern Ireland on her 30th birthday.

Ironically, she was in tears with a physio just 10 minutes prior, due to an injury.

"It was the day of my 30th birthday. There wasn't this 'I'm going for a perfect dive' (thought)," she said.

"I mean, you're always hoping to go for a perfect dive, but I think the difference in that one was that I had a small injury on the morning in the training of that dive and that competition day.

"I was in tears with the physio, like 10 minutes before that dive.

"In my mind (I was thinking) 'all right, I need to give this everything' because I didn't feel that strong because of the niggle that I had.

"I knew that when I stood there, I had to give this everything and I have to try and do it as perfect as possible."

Despite her decade of dominance, the Newcastle-born diving star admits the nerves are more heightened than ever heading into 2026.

"Maybe I'm just getting older and wiser," she laughed.

"I would say there's been a lot more nerves this year, which is crazy.

"I've kind of got a lot riding on this season. Hoping to pull another strong one out of the bag and to have another consistent and fun season.

"This is always one of the toughest times for an athlete, in any World Series...those couple of weeks right before the season, because you never know exactly where you're at on the board.

"I'm feeling somewhat confident and ready to give it my all but I also have no regrets in the past 10 years in my competition seasons."

To preserve her body for the gruelling season ahead, Iffland has ditched the high-impact cliff training in favour of integrating Olympic-style programming at the NSW Institute of Sport.

She focuses on repetitions to save her joints from the 85km/h impact on the water.

"I did make that decision not to go and train before the first event. I'm just going to go a couple of days prior (to Bali), mainly just to save my body from the impact because it's going to be a long season," Iffland admitted.

"The training basically looks very similar to what the Olympic divers are doing. I've kind of integrated a lot of their programming.

"What I do is I break the dive down into two or three parts. I'll do the amount of twists and the take-off like hundreds and hundreds of times.

"Then I'll do the entries hundreds of hundreds of times and also the take-offs.

"When I get there, I put it all together and sometimes I'll be walking upstairs doing the dive and I'll just be visualising what it's going to be like on the 22 (metre platform)."

A major hurdle for local high diving talent is that Australia currently lacks any facilities to allow divers to progress to the taller platforms that cliff diving uses.

Iffland believes the "go get 'em" Aussie attitude is a natural fit for the sport, but infrastructure is lagging behind the likes of China and the US.

"It's difficult. I think mentally as well because there is, at the moment, a facility in Canada, there's one in China, there's one in the US, there's one in Austria. They actually have those facilities," Iffland said.

"I mean, that's what we need for the sport of high diving.

"But I think also a lot of high divers come from sports like gymnastics, trampoline or diving. I think for somebody to come into high diving, they have to go through the diving fundamentals or the skill set before they get there.

"But, I think the next step would be, let's freaking build a platform. Let's build a facility and help grow this sport because it is amazing. I think Aussies have the personality for it.

"I think we do have that go-get-em attitude, don't we?"

Iffland knows that any small slip up can quickly become dangerous due to wind that can push a diver off a 22m platform. She also admitted that the mental game of falling is just as perilous as the physical.

Even as a nine-time champion, there is a voice in Iffland's head cautioning her every time she looks over the edge.

"It's a difficult thing. Setbacks happen for all athletes," she said.

"And, you know, as divers, we've all had things happen like that that just completely shake you to your core. And I think, in a sport like high diving, when you step up there, there's always that voice in your head that's cautioning you.

"It's just your body's natural reaction. But when something like that happens, that voice gets a heck of a lot louder and it becomes a lot more frequent up there.

"Because I do feel like the mental and physical side go hand in hand.

"The more you've done to prepare yourself physically, the better you're going to be mentally, if that makes sense."

Red Bull Cliff Diving has already seen Mrs. Macquarie's Chair in Sydney Harbour become a backdrop for their event, but where would Iffland like to go next?

"I would say that my sport probably has the coolest opportunity to have the coolest sporting arenas in the world."

"That Sydney backdrop, that is iconic. Absolutely iconic.

"Could it be somewhere like Outback Australia? Even if it was two dives there and then two in Sydney or something.

"Great Ocean Road, that would be so cool. There's so many possibilities."

Her sponsorship and relationship with Red Bull has allowed Iffland to take once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to dive off some strange contraptions, like a helicopter and a hot air balloon.

"That opportunity was just nuts when it came up," she said.

"Especially the helicopter in Sydney Harbour. Imagine coming over the top of the harbour and flying around and then diving out.

"I didn't even land in the helicopter. First time in the helicopter, I went up and I didn't land.

"When I was younger, I wanted to find the most unique road in diving to take that I could and, yeah, it just fitted perfectly. I knew that some of the males were doing cool projects in the Red Bull world and I was like, 'how come I haven't seen many females doing that?'

"I think that was a big driver. I got the bug for doing silly dives, bringing a bit of trampoline flair into diving and just started experimenting and I guess I just kind of grew on that."

For Iffland, the physicality of her training becomes nearly obsolete once she walks up to the platform.

She's instead looking for the dive to become second nature so she can focus on pushing distractions out of her mind.

As she prepares for the cliff diving season opener in Bali this May, Iffland's focus is simple: quiet the mind.

"It's a strange thing, because when we do the lead up and in the preseason...that's when I work on all of those technical sides of the dive. When you do step up onto the high diving platform in competition and under pressure, you only focus on one or two things just to kind of simplify it," she said.

"Hopefully all of the work that you put in and all of the technical work that you've done will all come together and show naturally.

"There's a lot of distractions and a lot of things that are happening when you're on the platform, and I think I learned very easy on that.

"I think it could be because I'm so scared up there. I'm only focusing on what I have to do technically, because at the end of the day, I know that that's what's going to help me pull off a good dive.

"You don't want a crowded mind when you're trying to A: perform well, and B: to do three somersaults backwards with two twists and do it well."

The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series for 2026 begins in Bali, Indonesia on May 20.