Kentwood — Fidele Byringiro taught himself to flip by using his parents’ bed as a trampoline — throwing front and backflips and caring more about landing them than the consequences.
“I got in trouble a couple times. It was all worth it,” he said.
Then a third-grader, Fidele was soon doing crazy stunts, flips and twists parkour-style in parks with his friend. “I was a wild kid. I was really comfortable with being upside down.”
So when Fidele walked into the East Kentwood Aquatic Center as a Valleywood Middle School eighth-grader looking to join the swim team with his friends, it was no surprise that his eyes went directly to the diving boards.
“I saw the divers doing flips and I was like ‘I want to try that,’” he said.
‘(I love) the feeling I have after getting a hard dive — when I do something really hard and I’m like, ‘Dang, I can’t believe I did that.’’
— diver Fidele Byringiro
Fidele is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who moved to the U.S. at age 7 with his parents and five siblings. His parents fled the country, which has endured a human rights catastrophe including genocide since the 1990s.
Having spent his early years in a refugee camp in Rwanda, he didn’t learn to swim young, he explained, recalling being saved by a lifeguard when swimming in a Grand Rapids community pool at age 8.
“All my friends were really tall and they were walking (in the pool) and I jumped in and couldn’t touch the ground at all.”
He soon learned to tread water and swim, but his path to becoming a state champion in high school diving didn’t begin until got on the board at East Kentwood.
Now, after years of practice at the East Kentwood Aquatics Center and Legacy Diving, a private diving program, his lineup each meet came to include dives as difficult as an inward two and a half somersault and a front three and a half somersault.
His bed-bouncing days forgiven long ago, Fidele said this year was the first time his parents watched him dive, and they were all smiles. “I know they are happy for me,” he said.
Finding Motivation and Confidence
Fidele graduated May 22, wrapping up a senior year that included winning the OK Red Conference and regional events, and clinching first place in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 Diving State Championship in March. He will head to Oakland University in August with a partial scholarship to dive and major in business.
“I won the three important meets, but prior to that I lost every meet. It was kind of hard to get my confidence up before the important meets happened,” he said. “Honestly. I didn’t really think I was going to win.”
Fidele said assistant swim coach Jock Ambrose served as motivation for him. Ambrose’s wife died in February, and Fidele remembers when Ambrose came back to practice after losing her.
“He said: ‘We’ve got some things to win.’ I was like, ‘I can’t let him down.’ I kind of had to block all the doubt out. I told him I dedicated the wins to his wife. He’s an amazing person.”
Gearing up for the finals, Fidele knew he had to work on his confidence. With guidance from diving coach Eric Gale, he used visualization techniques, picturing himself doing flawless dives and as the first-place winner, while remembering his biggest competition was himself.
Then, when the time came, he executed his vision and finished in first place.
“It felt like a really big accomplishment before it happened and then it happened and I was like, OK! …. I surprised myself a little bit.”
Coaching and Guidance
Ambrose, a longtime swim coach who has seen Fidele grow as a diver since ninth grade, said it’s the impact Fidele makes out of the pool that he is most proud to see.
“Fidele is an awesome young man,” he said. “Over the years he has consistently improved in his diving. He has gotten better and better every year.”
Bigger than that, Ambrose said: ‘Fidele’s greatest characteristics are personal characteristics. He is a very kind and socially aware young man. He is a wonderful leader for the other people who are on his team, and he does that through hard work, preparation and because of the way he treats the people around him. He has some very special relationships with his teammates.”
Fidele is the recipient of this year’s Ambrose Athlete of the Year Award, named for Ambrose and awarded to an athlete in the six-district OK Red for sportsmanship and character.
Ambrose said Fidele has a friendship with East Kentwood sophomore Gus Perton, a swimmer in the para-division who has Down syndrome, that “sets a fantastic example for all of us. … Their relationship can only be described as loving brothers.”
At the state meet, Gus won the 50-yard freestyle. Ambrose said the joy they shared in celebrating was amazing to watch.
“It speaks to the person Fidele is,” he said.
Another major influence in Fidele’s life is Mark Jameson, a mentor through the Christian nonprofit organization Community Kids since age 11 or 12. A former high school swimmer, Jameson noticed Fidele’s acrobatic skills and told him he would be a good diver. He supported him with time and encouragement, attending almost every meet in the past four years.
“I don’t think I would be here if it wasn’t for Mark,” Fidele said.
After Fidele’s eighth-place finish at the state championship his junior year, Jameson marked his calendar on the date of the 2025 finals, with “Fidele State Champion” on it. He shared what he had written with the young diver, manifesting what was to be.
Jameson, too, said Fidele is a great diver and so much more.
“I’ve really put a lot of value in supporting and guiding him, but I have learned a lot from him too,” Jameson said. “It has been a process of growing together. I’m grateful for the privilege of being his mentor.”
As he looks forward to college, Fidele continues to train. He said he loves the “unstoppable” feeling he gets from diving.
“(I love) the feeling I have after getting a hard dive — when I do something really hard and I’m like, ‘Dang, I can’t believe I did that.’… I go from having a bad day to an amazing day really fast.”
Fidele said his goals now are to focus on his future, get good grades in college and someday be a business owner. He said Jameson also mentioned a goal that’s got him thinking: “going to the Olympics for my country” — the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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