Diving gets back underway in Paris on Wednesday when eight teams compete in the women’s synchronized 10m platform finals. The U.S. won silver in the event in Tokyo, and American duo Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell have a good chance at earning a medal again.
Let’s dive right in for a look at what to watch.
How does the competition work?
All synchronized diving events in the Paris Games consist of just one round of competition with eight teams. Each team will do five dives. Two must have a degree of difficulty of 2.0, and the other three have no difficulty limit.
Eleven judges will score competitors on starting position, approach, take-off, flight, and entry into the water. Scores are added together and multiplied by the degree of difficulty for each dive. The team with the highest score at the end wins gold. In the event of a tie, multiple medals will be awarded.
Who all is competing?
- Chen Yuxi/Quan Hongchan (China)
- Delaney Schnell/Jess Parratto (USA)
- Andrea Spendolini Sirieix/Lois Toulson (Great Britain)
- Caeli McKay/Kate Miller (Canada)
- Gaby Agundez/Alejandra Orozco (Mexico)
- Kim Mi-Rae/Jo Jin-Mi (North Korea)
- Kseniia Bailo/Sofiia Lyskun (Ukraine)
- Jade Gillet/Emily Hallifax (France)
Who are the favorites?
As is the case with every diving event at these Olympics, the favorite is China. The duo of Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi may be considered the most unbeatable of any Chinese divers in these Games — diving experts consider them nearly impossible to beat. They’ve won the last three world championships, and Chen is the defending gold medalist from the Tokyo Games, where she helped give China its sixth straight gold in this event.
Quan is so good at diving, words couldn’t even describe her astounding talent, so new phrases were created. The Mandarin Chinese term “shui hua xiao shi shu” translates to "water splash disappearance technique" because of the way Quan is able to go into the water with such precision only the tiniest ripples are created.
In other words, both divers are really, really good.
What about the Americans?
The Americans are really good too. In fact, Jessica “Jess” Parratto and Delaney Schnell came to Paris as the previous Olympic silver medalists in the event. In Tokyo, they became the first Americans to win a medal in women’s synchro platform.
Parratto, 30, is the only U.S. diver competing in their third Olympics. She actually retired from diving following Tokyo until Schnell convinced her to run it back one more time.
Obviously it came down to me to decide, and I was happy to come out of retirement just for synchro," Parratto told NBC Sports earlier this year. "It’s such a fun event, and I wanted to give it one more shot with Dee next to me.
Team Schnellatto (doesn’t have the same ring to is as Cook’N Bacon, but that’s O.K.!) won bronze in the synchro platform at the 2023 World Championships, and silver at worlds the year before.
Any other teams to watch?
- Great Britain’s Andrea Spendolini Sirieix and Lois Toulson are strong medal contenders after winning bronze at this year’s world championships and silver in 2023. Both are multi-time Olympians. Nineteen-year-old Sirieix finished seventh in the individual platform in Tokyo. Toulson is competing in her third Olympics. She finished fifth in the synchro platform in 2016.
- Kim Mi-Rae and Jo Jin-Mi, of North Korea, won silver at this year’s world championships, the first time in four years the country allowed athletes to compete in international competition. Kim is competing in her second Olympics after finishing fourth in Tokyo with a different diving partner. Jo is making her Olympic debut, but is well-known in the diving world. In addition to her synchro silver at worlds this year, she also won silver in the mixed synchro platform, which is not an Olympic event.
- Tokyo bronze medalists Gabriela “Gaby” Agundez and Alejandra Orozco come to Paris after finishing fourth at both the 2023 and 2024 World Championships. Orozco is competing in her fourth Olympics for Mexico.
How do I watch?
Glad you asked! You can watch the women’s synchro platform finals on E! and stream on NBCOlympics.com beginning at 5 a.m. ET on Wednesday.