SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — One down. Seven to go.
China won its first gold medal in diving on the first day of competition on Saturday. Paris OlympicsIt was a perfect start for the team of Zhang Yani and Chen Yiwen.
China has dominated diving for decades, winning seven of the eight gold medals in Tokyo three years ago, but it has never won a gold medal sweep. That is the goal this time.
The Chinese team took first place in the women’s synchronized three-meter springboard event on Saturday, scoring 337.68 points from five dives, followed by Sarah Bacon and Cassidy Cook of the United States with 314.64 points and Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mu Jensen of Great Britain with 302.28 points to take the bronze medal.
The same Chinese pair had won gold medals in the previous three World Championships and were considered one of the favorites to win.
“Obviously, I’m very happy to win the gold medal,” Chen said.
“The two of us have been together for a long time,” she added. “Our personalities complement each other and there has never been any friction.”
The Americans followed every single one of the Chinese dives, watched their performance and knew what they had to do to match it – they did the same five dives as the Chinese.
“The Chinese have been the best in diving for decades,” Cook said, “but we are on par with them and our goal is to beat them one day. They are great competitors and rarely fail.”
“It won’t be long,” Cook added, “because we could be seeing another gold medalist flag raised at this Olympics.”
Cook and Bacon noted that China will always be under pressure as the favourite to win, but not as much as other countries.
“Going after China has certainly made the diving better,” Bacon added.
The crowd, full of Chinese fans and flags, chanted “jiayou” (roughly translated as “let’s go”) every time a Chinese person came out to dive.
Australia’s Madison Keaney and Annabel Smith missed out on a medal opportunity when they were in third place on their final dive but Smith slipped on the takeoff, earning them the lowest score of the five and eliminating them from the medal race.
The event was added in 2000 and the Chinese women’s team has won gold six times in seven Olympic Games, with their only loss coming to Russia in 2000. China won in Tokyo three years ago thanks to the efforts of Shi Tingmao and Wang Han.
Starting with China’s first gold medal in diving at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the country has won 47 of the 64 gold medals in diving, as well as 23 silver and 10 bronze medals.
Starting from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China has won 27 of the 32 gold medals in Olympic games.
These were the numbers before Paris. Now add another gold medal and you can see the numbers go up as the Olympics go on.
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-Paris-Olympic-Games
