Bermuda Day Grand Marshal 2017 – Our Sporting Heritage
When she was five, Katura Horton-Perinchief was one of the only girls in her family and in her neighbourhood to dive off the rocks and the bridges – Somerset Bridge to begin with and then Watford Bridge when she was older. Her mother, Ellen-Kate Horton, herself a famous Bermudian softball player, noticed her talent and arranged for her to have lessons in Toronto where they lived at the time. Katura had no fear and, as she says, felt the rhythm of the diving board was “a rhythm to live by.” Aged seven, she was diving competitively in Canada and aged 15 she was the Canadian National Champion regularly winning gold medals.
However, by the time she was 19 there came the decision as to which country she would represent: Bermuda or Canada. For her the choice was a “no brainer” and so she represented Bermuda many times at the international level, including twice in the Commonwealth Games, and in the Pan American games. Her proudest moment, of course, was representing Bermuda in diving in the 2004 Olympics held in Athens, the first Bermudian woman, and the first woman of African descent from any nation ever to do so.
She is very proud, too, of her academic achievements, including her Masters in public health and business, and is a strong advocate of being a student athlete. Today, her profession is managing the Bermuda National Tumour Registry. She serves on the Executive Board of the Bermuda Olympic Association. During the summer she conducts her STAR diving camp which she founded in 2014 for five to fourteen year olds. She is very proud of her camp, believing it has life lessons for everyone. Being brave, she says, is not a personality trait. “You can choose to be brave.”
