Diving at the 2024 Paris Olympics
Avoid the belly flop at all costs
Day one of the 2024 Olympics welcomes the first Diving events, with 136 athletes fighting it out in 8 events. I’ll only get to use this pun once, so let’s dive in.
The Basics
At the Olympic Games, the sport is contested in eight events: the 3-metre springboard (individual and synchronized, men and women) and the 10-metre platform (individual and synchronized, men and women). The 3-metre springboard enables divers to leap high into the air, while the high dive is performed from a fixed platform position 10 meters above the water. The individual and synchronized competitions take place at both heights.
A panel of judges score each dive based on various criteria, including how aesthetically pleasing a diver’s movements are, the complexity of the dive and how well the diver enters the water. Synchronized diving is also scored on how well the two divers match each other’s movements.
The Format
All of the sync events start in the finals with just 8 pairs qualified. They do 6 dives, and the scores from all 6 are added together. If you want to win gold, there is no room for any mistakes on any of your dives. If you made a costly error on dive #2 or #3, kiss the medals goodbye, because you need to go 6/6 on execution to have a chance at the podium.
The 4 individual events have bigger groups ranging from 27-30. In the preliminary round everyone does 6 dives, the scores are added together, and the top 18 move on. In the semifinal, scores go back to zero, everyone does another 6 dives, and then the top 12 move on to the final. Once again, scores start at zero, and everyone does 6 dives to determine the winner. One caveat to all this, men perform 6 dives, and women do 5 dives. Don’t ask me why.
What Countries are Historically Dominant?
Here is the medal table going back to 2008:
#1 China (27 gold, 11 silver, 5 bronze) (27 out of 32 possible events won!)
#2 United States (1 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze)
#3 Russia (1 gold, 4 silver, 3 bronze)
#4 Great Britain (2 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze)
T#5 Australia (1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)
T#5 Canada (3 silver, 4 bronze)
Also worth mentioning Mexico & Germany with 5+ medals each.
Schedule
July 27th: Women’s 3m Synchro Springboard
July 29th: Men’s 10m Synchro Platform
July 31st: Women’s 10m Synchro Platform
August 2nd: Men’s 3m Synchro Springboard
August 5th: Women’s 10m Platform prelims & semifinal
August 6th: Men’s 3m Springboard prelims + Women’s 10m Platform final
August 7th: Men’s 3m Springboard semifinal + Women’s 3m Springboard prelims
August 8th: Women’s 3m Springboard semifinal + Men’s 3m Springboard final
August 9th: Men’s 10m Platform prelims + Women’s 3m Springboard final
August 10th: Men’s 10m Platform semifinal & final