History
The first Olympic diving events were contested by men and consisted of a platform diving event ("fancy high diving") and also a plunge for distance event, which awarded victory to the diver who could reach the furthest underwater, while remaining motionless after a ground-level standing dive. At the 1908 Summer Olympics, men's springboard diving was added to the program and replaced the plunge for distance, which was regarded as uninteresting. [2] The women's diving debut happened at the 1912 Summer Olympics in the platform event and was expanded to springboard diving at the 1920 Summer Olympics. A parallel platform diving event for men, called "plain high diving", was presented at the Games of the V Olympiad. No acrobatic moves were allowed, only a simple straight dive off the platform. [3] It was last contested at the 1924 Summer Olympics after which it was merged with "fancy high diving" into one competition renamed "highboard diving" (or just "high diving"). [4]
By the time of the 1996 Summer Olympics, the diving events were exactly the same as in 1928 (two men's and two women's events). However, four years later in Sydney, the inclusion of a synchronized diving variant for the springboard and platform events elevated the list up to eight events (four men's and four women's events).
Another important change to the sport occurred at the 1984 Summer Olympics, when China first competed, after boycotting the previous games due to the political status of Taiwan. [5] China has become the dominant diving power and accumulated 55 gold medals since 1984.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Chinese divers swept all of the available events, winning a record eight gold medals. The Chinese team also surpassed the United States in the all-time medal tally after this edition of the games.
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