SAINT-DENIS, France — Cassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon won silver in the women’s 3-meter synchronized diving on Saturday, earning the U.S. its first medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Bacon and Cook earned 314.64 points from five dives, putting Americans on the podium for the first time in the event since 2012. They were sandwiched between gold medal-winning pair Zhang Yani and Chen Yiwen of China (337.68 points) and bronze medalist Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mu-Jensen of Great Britain (302.28 points).
For the duo known as “Cook and Bacon,” familiarity and friendship were key ingredients in their winning formula, say the divers, who have been friends since childhood and have been diving together since 2019.
“I’m overjoyed. There’s so many emotions going through my head right now,” Cook told reporters. “To be able to go up on that stage, perform, do well and stand on the medal stand with one of my best friends is an amazing feeling.”
Reigning world champions Chang and Chen led from start to finish, but Bacon and Cook said their struggle to catch up with the powerful Chinese pair was what earned them the silver medal.
“Obviously we were diving behind a great Chinese team so they put a lot of pressure on us,” Cook said, “but seeing them make those dives make us want to make them too. I think it’s a credit to them and I’m really happy to win the silver medal.”
Cook, 29, who lives outside Houston, competed in Rio in 2016, becoming the first American diver to compete in non-consecutive Olympics.
“Then finding out we won the first medal for the U.S. team made it an even more amazing feeling,” Cook said.
The event has been held seven times in Olympic history and the Chinese duo has won six of them, only failing to reach the top of the podium in 2000.
Bacon, who narrowly missed out on making the U.S. diving team for the Tokyo Olympics, said he turned the disappointment into a blessing.
“Well, I ended up not being selected for the 2020 Olympic team and my intentions were to retire after the Olympics,” said Bacon, 27, from Indianapolis.
“I was burnt out and just wanted it to be over. Not making the Olympic team allowed me to continue diving and be at this Olympics with Cassidy. To be standing on the podium with a silver medal is just an incredible feeling. I can’t put it into words right now.”
Both athletes said that looking back, missing out on the Tokyo Games led to better results.
During Saturday’s competition, there were loud and raucous cheers for all the competitors, especially the Chinese, Americans, local French and Ukrainians.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Cook told NBC News late Saturday. “It was an Olympic Games, but it wasn’t a true experience. And if I had gone to that Games, I would have retired because I would have achieved that goal.”
She added: “I’m really happy that we’ve persevered and made it this far.”
Cook will have time to relax and cheer on her teammates for the remainder of the Olympic Games, while Bacon still has the 3-meter individual springboard event to compete, which begins on Aug. 7.
Once the Olympics are over, both athletes will be faced with the difficult decision of where to put their medals back home.
“I’d love to display it,” Cook says, “so I might have to build a trophy room with the silver metal as the focal point.”
Despite being considered metal contenders on Saturday, both Cook and Bacon said they hadn’t previously given much thought to where the potential hardware would end up in their homes.
“Before you can decide where to put it, you need to clear out a corner in your home,” Bacon says. “Maybe in a picture frame on a wall somewhere? It’ll be the focal point of something.”
