The U.S. team won its first medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Saturday when diving aces Sarah Bacon and Cassidy Cook took second place in the women’s synchronized 3-meter springboard event.
Bacon and Cook earned a total of 314.64 points for their dives, just 23.04 points shy of the gold medal winners, Yani Zhang and Yiwen Chen of China, who scored 337.68 points.
The American duo beat Great Britain’s Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew-Jensen, who earned 302.28 points.
This was Bacon’s Olympic debut, 27, from Indianapolis and a graduate of the University of Minnesota.
She has won two silver medals in the 1-meter springboard event at the World Championships, in 2019 and 2022.
Bacon will also compete in the individual 3-meter springboard diving event after winning the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.
Cook, who was unable to compete in the 2020 Olympics, made his Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, where he placed 13th in the 3-meter springboard event.
The 29-year-old from The Woodlands, Texas, graduated from Stanford University in 2018.
The podium finish was the United States’ first medal in the women’s synchronized diving event since Kelsey Bryant and Abby Johnston won silver in London in 2012.
China won the 10m air rifle mixed team event held earlier that morning, winning their second gold medal of the tournament.