Childhood and early development

Born in June 1957,^[1] Shatto began roller skating at the age of 2 and later took up acrobatics, modern dance and learnt to play the violin.^[2] She started competitive diving at the age of 8 in her family's backyard pool in Willowdale, Toronto. Her father would play diving games with her, using a long garbage sweeping pole for her to run and leap over "like a porpoise". Under the early coaching of John Dickinson, Shatto won "just about every age-group meet she entered".^[3] Among her first recognised competitions was the Ontario under-10s 1-metre diving championships, where at the age of 8 she scored 84.20 points and won in her age group.^[4] At the age of 9, she practised 33 feet (10 m) platform diving at the open-air pool in Summerville, occasionally being blown by wind from the tower due to its location near the edge of Lake Ontario. Despite the extreme cold weather conditions, she persevered.^[3] A few weeks after her ninth birthday, she became the Ontario diving champion in the girls under-10 age category with a score of 132.75^[5] and followed it up by becoming the United States diving champion in her age group.^[6]

By the age of 10, she had experience with playing the violin, acrobatics, contemporary dancing and baton twirling. Her mother described her as persistent, saying that "if she discovered something she couldn't master, she'd get mad, sulk, but stick it out until she got better."^[3] Shortly before turning 11, as a member of the Etobicoke Diving Club, she won the under-14 tower event in the Ontario open championships, which brought her competitive record to 26 first place finishes, two second placed finishes and one third place finish across 29 events.^[7] Shortly before her 12th birthday, she finished runner-up in the 1969 Ontario open 3-metre diving championships in the girls' under-15 category.^[8] At the age of 13, she was invited to train with national coach Don Webb, requiring her to live with Webb's family for around three years, the first two years being in Winnipeg.^[9]

During her earlier years, she frequently ate excessive amounts of chips and gravy, with other children using it as her nickname. Having been admitted to hospital with constant stomach pains due to excessive greasy food, her gallbladder was removed which left her weak and unable to train during the winter of 1971–1972.^[3]

Competitive diving

By 1973, she had been living with Don Webb's family for three years, training up to five hours a day, six days a week, or longer when preparing for a competition. Alongside Linda Cuthbert, another diver living with the Webbs, Shatto trained for an hour at lunchtime and had a heavier workload on Saturdays, with a rest day on Sundays. Diving was everything to Shatto at that point, and she loved the competition, traveling and meeting new people. She would show little emotion during competitions, except when winning, and did not like her father watching her diving as they would both get nervous. ^[3] In the same year, she represented her country at the world championships held in Yugoslavia.^[2] Under Webb's coaching in 1974, Shatto won a gold medal in the British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch in the 3 metre springboard diving event,^[10] establishing herself as the likeliest contender in Canada to win a gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. According to Webb, Shatto was a natural diver with class, possessing the style and determination that other divers had to learn.^[11]

Retirement

On the eve of the 1978 Commonwealth Games, Shatto announced her retirement from competitive diving at the age of 21, citing the "nomadic life of a world-class athlete" as being the primary factor in her loss of interest.^[14] She admitted that her Olympic controversy two years prior was a contributing factor^[9] as well as losing motivation, instead preferring to get a job and earn her own money.^[15]