Australian Olympic diver Melissa Wu has swapped the spring board for the bow of a tallship to launch the International Tall Ship Festival in Sydney.

 

　　CRI's Australia correspondent Wang Xiao has more.

 

　　The tallship is berthed at Campbell Cove on Circular Quay, which is very near Sydney's iconic Opera House.

 

　　Melissa Wu says she's made the splash to try to promote the international Tall Ship Festival.

 

　　"In October, there is the International Tall Ship Festival, so a lot of vessels and tallships will come in to celebrate the 100th aniversary of the first navy ship coming into Sydney. So that's what this is for."

 

　　She admits this is her first jumps off a tall ship.

 

　　"It is not very high, but I am a little bit nervous, because I am just diving off a thin wire. My feet is nothing like stable. Never off a tall ship before. It is my first time."

 

　　The Chinese-Australian, after a short countdown, wowed the crowd with an almost flawless dive into Sydney Harbor.

 

　　Mellisa Wu was born in 1992.

 

　　Her mother is English-Australian.

 

　　Her father is of Chinese descent.

 

　　She won silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the 2007 World Aquatics Championships and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

 

　　Up to a dozen tall ships crewed by around a thousand sailors are due to arrive in Australia later this year for the tall-ships festival.

 

　　The ships will race from Sydney to Opua in New Zealand, which is just one leg of an around-the-world voyage retracing old trade routes.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Wang Xiao in Sydney.