49 Fun Facts About Diving

Who has won the most Olympic diving medals, eight in all?

Dmitri Sautin won eight Olympic diving medals for Russia across five Games from 1992 to 2008, including 10 m platform gold in 1996; Wu Minxia's seven is the women's record.

In which country were the first modern diving competitions held, in the 1880s?

England staged the first modern diving competitions in the 1880s; its Amateur Swimming Association ran a national plunging championship from 1883 to 1937.

Competitive diving grew out of gymnasts in which two countries training over water?

Gymnasts in Germany and Sweden moved their apparatus to beaches and lakes in the 1800s; the soft landing let them attempt more elaborate aerial feats, a tradition known as fancy diving.

The first world championship diving event, held in 1895, took place at which London site?

Highgate Ponds in north London hosted the Royal Life Saving Society's National Graceful Diving Competition in 1895, regarded as the first world championship diving event.

Diving made its Olympic debut at which Games?

Diving debuted at the 1904 St. Louis Games with two men's events, platform diving and the plunge for distance; springboard events were added in 1908.

Women first competed in Olympic diving at which Games?

Women first dived at the 1912 Stockholm Games in a plain high diving event won by Sweden's Greta Johansson; women's springboard followed in 1920.

Synchronised diving became an Olympic sport at which Games?

Synchronised diving debuted at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, doubling the programme from four events to eight; pairs are judged on execution and on synchronisation.

In major meets such as the Olympics, platform diving is performed from what height?

Olympic and world championship platform events are held from 10 metres; junior divers also compete from 5 and 7.5 metre towers.

Apart from the platform, most diving competitions include springboards at which two heights?

Only the 3-metre springboard is contested at the Olympics; the 1-metre appears at the World Championships.

How many judges sit on the panel for individual diving at the Olympics?

Seven judges score individual Olympic dives; the two highest and two lowest marks are discarded and the middle three are summed and multiplied by the degree of difficulty.

A judge's score out of ten is notionally split into three points each for which three phases of a dive?

Judges notionally award up to three points each for the takeoff, the flight and the entry, leaving one point of discretion; the total is then multiplied by the dive's degree of difficulty.

What score does a diver receive for performing a dive other than the one announced, even if it is harder?

Performing a dive other than the one on the locked dive sheet is ruled a failed dive and scores zero, even if the dive performed is harder.

The score for a dive is multiplied by a factor known as what?

The degree of difficulty, or tariff, is the multiplier applied to each dive's judged score; a competitive diver builds a list that raises it while scoring consistently.

How many groups are dives classified into for competition?

The first digit of every dive number identifies its group, and the last of the six is only available on the platform.

In which dive group does the diver take off facing forward and rotate backward?

Inward is the mirror image: taking off with the back to the water and rotating forward, towards the board.

Which body position in flight is rated the hardest of the four?

Straight is rated hardest because of the risk of over-rotation, even though many divers find it the easiest to hold in a simple dive.

The four dive positions are referred to by which letters?

The positions are lettered A (straight), B (pike), C (tuck) and D (free); the letter is appended to the dive number, so 101A is a forward dive in the straight position.

In the dive number 305C, what does the third digit represent?

305C is a reverse two-and-a-half somersault in the tuck position: group 3, no flying element, five half-somersaults.

Which dive group is performed only from the platform, never the springboard?

Armstand dives, group six, begin from a handstand on the edge of the platform; springboard events use only groups one to five, so the armstand group is never contested on a board.

Roughly how fast is a diver travelling when they hit the water from the 10-metre platform?

A diver leaving the 10 m platform hits the water at about 55 km/h, around 14 metres per second, which is why a flat landing can cause heavy bruising or even concussion.

The sport's governing body recommends what minimum pool depth beneath a 10-metre platform?

World Aquatics, formerly FINA, recommends at least 5 metres of water beneath a 10 m platform; elite divers rarely go deeper than about 2.5 m because they roll with the dive's rotation on entry.

Which body, formerly known as FINA, governs diving worldwide?

World Aquatics is the renamed FINA, the federation founded in London in 1908; it also governs swimming, artistic swimming, water polo and open water swimming.

China first competed in Olympic diving at which Games, having boycotted the previous ones?

China's divers debuted at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, where Zhou Jihong won the women's platform for the country's first diving gold; China has dominated the sport since.

Greg Louganis swept both the springboard and platform golds at which two consecutive Olympics?

Greg Louganis won both springboard and platform at Los Angeles 1984 and again at Seoul 1988, the only man to sweep the two events at consecutive Games.

What happened to Greg Louganis during the preliminary rounds at the 1988 Seoul Olympics?

Louganis hit his head on the springboard during a reverse two-and-a-half pike in the preliminaries, was stitched up, returned the same day and went on to win the gold medal.

Six months before the 1988 Olympics, Greg Louganis received what diagnosis, which he kept private until 1995?

Louganis learned he was HIV-positive six months before Seoul and revealed it in his 1995 memoir Breaking the Surface; his bleeding head wound later prompted debate about pool safety.

In 2016, Greg Louganis appeared on the boxes of which cereal as part of a Legends series?

Wheaties put Louganis on its box in 2016 in a Legends series that also honoured 1980s Olympians Janet Evans and Edwin Moses, decades after his first gold.

American Pat McCormick won both women's diving events at which two consecutive Olympics?

Pat McCormick won springboard and platform at Helsinki 1952 and again at Melbourne 1956, the first diver to complete the double-double; her daughter Kelly won Olympic silver in 1984 and bronze in 1988.

Who coached Klaus Dibiasi, the only diver with three straight Olympic golds in one individual event?

Klaus Dibiasi was coached by his father Carlo, himself an Olympic diver for Italy at the 1936 Berlin Games; Klaus took platform gold at three straight Games from 1968.

China's Fu Mingxia won the platform world championship in 1991 at what age?

Fu Mingxia was 12 when she won 10 m platform gold at the 1991 World Championships in Perth, then the youngest world champion in any aquatic sport.

Fu Mingxia was inspired to take up sport by an older sister and originally trained in what discipline?

Fu Mingxia started in gymnastics before coaches judged her too inflexible and moved her to diving at about seven; she sometimes practised 100 dives a day, gliding so close to the platform that her hair brushed it.

Guo Jingjing won the 3 m springboard event at how many consecutive World Championships?

Guo Jingjing won the 3 m springboard at five consecutive World Championships, from Fukuoka 2001 to Rome 2009, and took Olympic springboard gold in 2004 and 2008.

After the 2004 Olympics, Guo Jingjing was banned by the Chinese national team for what reason?

Guo Jingjing was dropped from the national team in early 2005 for excessive commercial activities after Athens, and reinstated once she agreed to cut back on promotional work.

Chen Ruolin, a five-time Olympic champion, coached which platform star to two golds at Paris 2024?

Chen Ruolin coached Quan Hongchan, who won the 10 m platform and the synchronised platform at Paris 2024; Chen herself retired after Rio 2016 and later joined the national coaching staff.

Which phrase did Chinese media coin for the splashless entries of the 2020 and 2024 platform champion?

Chinese media dubbed Quan Hongchan's rip entries the 'water splash disappearance technique'; she won 10 m platform gold in Tokyo aged 14 with dives that drew straight tens from all seven judges.

Tom Daley won his first world title on the 10 m platform in 2009 at what age?

Tom Daley was 15 when he won the 10 m platform at the 2009 World Championships in Rome; he had been Britain's youngest competitor at Beijing 2008 at 14, and won a second world platform title in 2017.

With whom did Tom Daley win Olympic gold in the synchronised 10 m platform at the 2020 Games?

Daley and Matty Lee won the synchronised 10 m platform at Tokyo 2020, Daley's first Olympic gold; his Paris 2024 silver with Noah Williams made him the first British diver with five Olympic medals.

Tom Daley served as a mentor on which 2013 ITV celebrity diving show?

Splash! ran on ITV in 2013 and 2014 with Daley mentoring celebrities who dived in front of judges; he has since become almost as famous for his knitting.

Australia's Matthew Mitcham, the 2008 Olympic platform champion, originally competed in which sport?

Mitcham competed in trampolining as a junior before switching to diving; his final dive in Beijing scored 112.10, then the highest single-dive score in Olympic history.

High diving made its debut at the 2013 world championships held in which city?

High diving joined the programme at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona, staged from a tower in the city's harbour; Colombia's Orlando Duque and America's Cesilie Carlton were the first champions.

At the world championships, men's high diving is performed from a platform of what height?

Men's high diving is from 27 metres and women's from 20; divers enter feet first after a fall of about three seconds at roughly 85 km/h.

The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series was established in which year?

Red Bull launched its Cliff Diving World Series in 2009 with men diving from about 27 metres; a women's series from about 20 metres was added in 2014.

The 1928 Olympics merged plain and fancy diving into a single event under what name?

From 1928 the men's plain and fancy high diving were merged into a single highboard diving event; the programme then stayed at two men's and two women's events until synchro arrived in 2000.

Which two-time Olympic champion spotted the young Greg Louganis and became his coach?

Sammy Lee, platform champion in 1948 and 1952, took on Louganis and coached him to silver on the tower at Montreal 1976 at 16, behind Italy's Klaus Dibiasi.

How many World Championship gold medals did China's springboard specialist Wu Minxia win?

Wu Minxia won eight world titles, most of them in the 3 m synchro with Guo Jingjing, He Zi and Shi Tingmao, plus the 2011 individual springboard; she competed at every Olympics from 2004 to 2016, winning five golds.

Klaus Dibiasi won Olympic diving medals at how many Summer Games?

Dibiasi medalled at four Games: platform silver in 1964, then platform gold in 1968, 1972 and 1976, with a 1968 springboard silver making five medals in all.

In which Austrian town was Italy's first Olympic diving champion, Klaus Dibiasi, born?

Dibiasi was born in 1947 in Solbad Hall, today Hall in Tirol near Innsbruck, to Italian parents who returned with him to Italy as a child.

Which East German diver won both springboard and platform gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics?

Ingrid Krämer of Dresden swept springboard and platform at Rome 1960 for the United Team of Germany, and as Engel-Krämer added springboard gold in Tokyo in 1964.

In which Californian city was Greg Louganis born?

Louganis was born in El Cajon, east of San Diego, in January 1960 to teenage parents of Samoan and Swedish descent, and was adopted as a baby by Peter and Frances Louganis.