Depictions on historic artefacts tell us that people have been diving from high cliffs into water since ancient times, but modern professional diving developed more recently in Europe between the late 17th century and early 19th century as acrobats practised their routines over water. The Swedes and the Germans pioneered early technique, but as the popularity of the sport spread, it became a truly global sport.
Olympic History
‘Fancy diving’ was first included on the Olympic rosta with the addition of the men’s 10m platform event for the 1904 Summer Games in St Louis, USA. The first champion was home-town hero George Sheldon, a 30-year-old eye doctor.
Over the next few years, more individual events for men and women – such as the 3m springboard – were added. From 1928, though, the diving programme was unchanged until 1996.
For the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, the men’s and women’s synchronised diving events were added to the schedule, adding a new interpretation to the classic event.
Since the early 1990’s China has shown dominance in the sport and prior to this the United States. Perhaps the greatest was US diver was Greg Louganis who, in 1988, cracked his head on the springboard while attempting a reverse 2.5 pike, but went on to win gold in both men’s events despite
