Heartbroken Australian diver Taneka Kovchenko retired on the eve of her home Commonwealth Games on Tuesday after medical experts warned that she risked severe paralysis if one more dive went wrong.

The 23-year-old, who was a serious medal contender in the women’s synchronised 10m platform at the Gold Coast, has been suffering chronic headaches and neck pain since the end of last year.

Scans showed two vertebrae have compressed her spinal cord and her doctor and neurologist said another bad landing could leave her quadriplegic and dependent on a ventilator.

“I have had an amazing 14 years diving, chasing my dream of representing Australia,” said Kovchenko, who hails from nearby Brisbane.

“I am grateful for every experience and opportunity I have been given. I am leaving the sport as an athlete proud of my accomplishments and with so many life skills.”

Kovchenko, who with teammate Melissa Wu finished fifth at last year’s world championships in Budapest in the synchronised 10m, described the threat of serious injury as “super scary”.

“I thought of every scenario to try and continue diving till at least the end of the season, however the risks highly outweighed the options of continuing to dive and sadly had to make the heartbreaking decision to stop diving,” she wrote on Instagram.

Pt.1 This past week I’ve had to make one of the hardest decisions of my career so far and I would like to firstly say thank you to medical professionals at SASI for being so diligent throughout this process because without them life could have be a lot worse. Yesterday I announced I am having to retire from diving due to my safety. Since the end of last year I have had chronic headaches and a lot of pain in my neck. We decided it was time to get it check out last month so I had a few scans done, not thinking much off it. From the first scan we found I have a fairly common genetic formation where my scull formed before my brain finished growing which seemed to pose no immediate problems but my Doctor wanted to send me to the neurologist as this can sometimes cause a build up of fluid in the spinal cord. I had a few more scans done in flexion and extension of my neck which found my neck is hyper flexible and my c1 and c2 are compressing my spinal cord and the bottom of my brain when in these positions. The neurologist and Doctors where very clear that if a dive was to go wrong that the result would be being a ventilated quadriplegic. This was a super scary moment. I thought of every scenario to try and continue diving till at-least the end of this season however the risks highly out weighed the options of continuing to dive and sadly had to make the heart breaking decision to stop diving. I have had an amazing 14 years diving chasing my dream of representing Australia. I am great full for every experience and opportunity I have been given. I am leaving the sport as an athlete proud of my accomplishments and with so many life skills. I have learnt so much from this sport including courage, determination, inner strength, persistence, confidence, self belief, to aspire, support and empathize with teammates even if it’s a primarily individual sport. This may be the end of my diving career but I’m not going to be a stranger to the sport, I’m still in love with it.

A post shared by Taneka Kovchenko (@tkovchenko) on

Australian team diving manager Michael Hetherington said that he suspected Kovchenko was still in shock at her sudden forced retirement.

“She has been amazing, she really has,” Hetherington said.

“Whether it has sunk in, I’m not fully sure as yet. She came and spoke to the team in camp and very emotionally broke the news to the team.

“But she also realises there wasn’t really a choice... it wasn’t like she was just injured. Unfortunately the choice was made for her.”

Kovchenko and Wu had been expected to light up their event at the Commonwealth Games, having taken gold at November’s FINA Diving Grand Prix at the Gold Coast.

“I’m going to miss you so much up on the platform... I’m so proud of you and everything you’ve achieved,” an emotional Wu told Kovchenko following her sudden retirement.

“This is only the beginning of what you will continue to achieve in life. Thanks for being such a great team-mate and for always inspiring me to get the best out of myself.”

Teju Williamson will replace Kovchenko in the 10m individual event, and could also join up with Wu in the synchronised discipline.