Olympic diving has produced some of Team GB’s standout moments at recent Games from Tom Daley finally winning gold in Tokyo to Jack Laugher and Chris Mears making history in Rio.
The sport began Olympic life as platform diving in 1904 before fancy diving, or springboard, was added four years later.
Synchronised diving was included in the Olympic programme in 2000, adding another layer of technicality to a sport that sees divers hurtle towards the water at almost 40 miles per hour.
Here we get you clued up on Olympic diving:
What is the difference between platform and springboard in Olympic diving?
Platform diving sees divers descend from the highest level of the diving tower which measures 10m from the surface of the water.
Springboard diving sees divers compete from a board 3m above the water, but unlike the 10m platform which is made from a rigid structure, the springboard moves.
Divers use the aluminium springboard to create momentum to power them upwards before taking off for their dives.
Do divers compete in both springboard and platform at the Olympics?
Divers typically specialise in either springboard or platform diving at the Olympics due to the complex nature of each discipline, however divers have previously competed in both.
The USA’s Greg Louganis won both the men’s springboard and platform gold at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.
Why do Olympic divers dry off between each dive?
Between dives, you can often see divers using small towels to dry their hands and legs before a dive to allow them the most control when completing the various moves within their dives.
How many dives do athletes do in Olympic diving?
In both individual and synchronised diving, men perform six dives, while women perform five rounds.
Each dive is different and is scored on a variety of categories.
How does the Olympic competition work?
At Paris, the eight competitions will take place across eight days with a total of 136 divers competing.
There are preliminary rounds for the individual springboard and platform competitions for both men and women.
The top 18 divers advance from the preliminary round to the semi-final, with the highest-scoring 12 divers moving from the semi-final to the final.
The synchronised events go straight to the final with eight teams competing.
In the final, the highest-scoring diver/s across the five rounds for the women and six rounds for the men will be crowned Olympic champion/s.
How does scoring work in Olympic diving?
In individual events, seven poolside judges score each dive individually. The judges must give a score between one and 10, although they can award half-points.
The judges consider the starting position, take-off, flight and entry into the water when deciding their score.
Once all the judges have inputted their scores, the highest two and lowest two scores are eliminated. The remaining scores are then multiplied by the dive’s degree of difficulty to calculate the final score.
What is synchronised Olympic diving?
Synchronised diving sees two men or two women competing together at the same time.
The competitors are marked on both their individual execution of the dives and on synchronisation.
There are 11 judges involved in synchronised diving with six judging the execution of the divers (three per diver), and five judging synchronisation.
The five synchronisation judges consider the approach, take off, timing of movements, angles of entry, distance from the board at entry and timings of entry.
The middle score for each diver’s execution is retained, with the highest and lowest synchronisation scores removed to leave five scores.
These scores are multiplied by 0.6 to make them comparable to the scores seen in individual diving and this is then multiplied by the degree of difficulty to get the final score.
Those diving medals keep on coming!!
— Team GB (@TeamGB) February 7, 2024
Now it's BRONZE for @scarmewjensen and @yasminharps - a great building block for @Paris2024 👊🥉pic.twitter.com/vxBt033fUw
What are the different dive groups in Olympic diving?
There are six dive groups in Olympics diving with the names referring to the diver’s starting position and direction they dive.
They are forward, back, reverse, inward, twisting and armstand.
Forward dives see the divers start facing the pool and rotate forward away from the board.
For backward dives, divers face away from the pool and rotate backwards away from the platform.
Reverse dives involve divers facing towards the pool and rotating backward towards the board.
For inward dives, competitors face away from the pool and rotate towards the platform.
Twisting dives relate to the content of the dive rather than the starting position or direction of the dive, with twisting dives including at least one twist.
Armstand dives are only included in platform competitions and involve divers beginning their dives in a handstand position at the edge of the platform.
🔥 Poise. Power. Brilliant synchro. @LoisToulson and @andreassirieix get the job done at #AQUADoha2024 🥉pic.twitter.com/KIvagLSM6K
— Team GB (@TeamGB) February 6, 2024
What do the different dive positions mean in Olympic diving?
There are four positions in Olympic diving, straight, pike, tuck and free.
Straight position involves divers keeping a straight line through their body with their arms down by their sides.
Pike position sees divers bend at the waist with their chests laying on their thighs.
Tuck position requires divers to bring their knees to their chests and put their hands on their shins with their toes pointed down.
Free position is used for twisting and armstand dives and involves divers combining two or all of the other three positions in their dive.
What do the different dive codes mean in Olympic diving?
Before divers compete the code of the dive they are about to complete will be shown with each number or letter representing something.
The first number represents the dive group from 1-6 and the letter at the end of the code represents the dive position from A-D.
Forward, backward, reverse and inward dives have three numbers within the code, while twisting and armstand dives have four numbers.
For the first four dive groups, the second number in the code indicates if the dive is a flying dive, although these are rarely seen in international competition. For the last two dive groups, the number will indicate what starting position and direction the dive will have.
The third number indicates the number of half somersaults in each dive, while for twisting and armstand dives the fourth number shows the number of half twists.
Sportsbeat 2024