Pandelela made her international competition debut in 2007 at the Asian Junior Aquatics Championships where she won four gold medals. At the
2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, she won the gold medal in the 10m synchronized platform with Cheong Jun Hoong. Pandelela made her Olympic debut at the
2008 Beijing Olympics as a 15-year-old. She finished 27th in the
10 m platform. At the
2009 World Aquatics Championships, she finished fifth in the
10 m platform. She went on to win the bronze medal in the
10 m synchronized platform with
Leong Mun Yee where it was also the first-ever diving medal for Malaysia at the World Championships. Pandelela won two gold medals at the
2009 Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane. She was the Malaysian national
flag bearer at the
2010 Summer Youth Olympics in
Singapore where she won silver medals in the 10 m platform and 3 m springboard events. At the
2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, she won Malaysia's first
Commonwealth Games gold medal in an aquatic sport by winning the 10 m platform event. At the
2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, she won the bronze medal in 10 m platform and the silver medal in 10m synchronized platform with Leong Mun Yee. Pandelela was Team Malaysia's national
flag bearer at the
2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, the first Malaysian Olympic female athlete to be accorded the honour. She competed in the individual 10 m platform,
3m synchronized springboard with Cheong Jun Hoong and the
10 m synchronised platform event with Leong Mun Yee. She became the first
Malaysian female athlete to win an Olympics medal, and the first Malaysian athlete to win an Olympics medal in a sport besides badminton by winning a bronze medal in the
10 m platform at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She became Sarawak's first athlete to be accorded with the award. At the
2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Pandelela and Mun Yee clinched the bronze medal in the 10m synchronized platform event with 331.14 points. She also finished sixth in the individual 10m platform event. At the
2013 Southeast Asian Games in Naypyidaw, she retained her gold medal in the 10m platform event. Pandelela competed at the
2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Despite a knee injury, she won the bronze medal in the 10m synchronized platform with
Nur Dhabitah Sabri. She also bagged a silver in the 10m platform with a score of 368.55 points. At the
2014 Asian Games in Incheon, she won the bronze medal in 10 m synchro platform with Leong Mun Yee. In July 2015, Pandelela made history when she became the first Malaysian to finish on the podium in an individual event at the
World Aquatics Championships. She clinched a bronze medal in the individual 10 m platform in Kazan and qualified for the
2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Brazil. At the
2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she won the silver medal in the
10 m synchronized platform with Cheong Jun Hoong, becoming the first Malaysian women's team to win a silver medal at the Olympics. In honour of her achievement at the
2016 Summer Olympics, the Sarawak Aquatic Centre in
Petra Jaya,
Sarawak was officially renamed the Pandelela Rinong Aquatic Centre. After
2016 Summer Olympics, Pandelela took a break to recuperate from back and shoulder injuries. At the
2017 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, she won the bronze medal in the 10 m synchronized platform with Cheong Jun Hoong. She finished ninth in the individual 10m platform which was won by her partner, Jun Hoong. At the
2017 Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, she won the gold medal in a newly introduced team event with Gabriel Gilbert Daim. She also retained her gold medal in the individual 10m platform event. At the
2021 FINA Diving World Cup in
Tokyo, Japan, she won the gold medal in the
individual 10 m platform. She placed fourth in the
synchronized 10 m platform together with
Leong Mun Yee. At the
2020 Summer Olympics in
Tokyo, Pandelela and her diving partner Leong Mun Yee finished eighth in the women's 10m synchronized platform. ==Awards==