The final diving event at the Paris Olympics will kick off Friday with the prelims of the men’s 10m platform. Here's a look at how the competition works, the schedule for all three rounds, and the names to know ahead of Wednesday’s preliminary round.

Each individual diving competition will consist of three rounds. The prelims will feature 34 divers, with the top 18 moving on to the semifinals. From there, the top 12 will compete in the finals. Those tied for 18th or 12th will also move on. Scores do not carry over from round to round.

In the event of a tie among the top three at the end of the finals, multiple medals will be awarded. 

In platform competition, each diver must perform a dive from six different categories: armstand, forward, backward, reverse, inward, and twisting.

Divers are judged on starting position, approach, take-off, flight, and entry into the water. Each dive is given a degree of difficulty before it is performed, but divers are judged regardless of how difficult the dive is. After each dive, seven judges give their score, with the two highest and two lowest discarded. The remaining three scores are added, multiplied by the degree of difficulty, and boom — that’s how you calculate the scores.

Preliminary round – Friday at 4 a.m. ET
Semifinals – Saturday at 4 a.m. ET
Finals – Saturday at 9 a.m. ET

• The U.S. leads all nations with 30 medals in the men’s platform, but the last American medal came courtesy of David Boudia when he won bronze in 2016. Boudia is also the last American gold medalist in the event, which he won in 2012.
• China has won gold in men’s platform the last two Olympics, and has won at least one medal in each of the last 10 Games.

• Cao Yuan (China) – Cao is competing in his fourth Olympics and is looking to become the first diver since Greg Louganis in 1988 to repeat as Olympic gold medalist in the men’s platform. The Tokyo gold was Cao’s third Olympic win, and he’s the only diver in history to win gold medals in three different diving events. He started with the synchro platform in 2012, and followed with gold in the springboard in 2016. Since Tokyo, Cao didn’t compete at the 2022 or 2023 world championships, but finished second at worlds earlier this year. 
• Yang Hao (China) – Cao finished second at this year’s worlds to Yang, who is making his Olympic debut. He already has a gold medal at this year’s Games in the synchro platform. Yang finished seconds at worlds in 2022 and 2023.
• Carson Tyler (USA) – Making his Olympic debut, Tyler is the first American man since 2000 to compete in both the individual springboard and platform events at a single Games. The 20-year-old already has a fourth place finish in Paris in the springboard finals, and is stronger on the platform, where he’s a two-time NCAA champion at Indiana University (2023 and 2024) and a world bronze medalist in the mixed synchro (an event not held at the Olympics). 
• Brandon Loschiavo (USA) – Loschiavo found out he would be going to the Olympics one day before the Opening Ceremonies. The 27-year-old earned the Olympic spot after the U.S. was awarded an additional quota spot in the platform when another foreign athlete dropped out of the competition. Loschiavo finished second in the platform at the U.S. Olympic Trials, but at the time the U.S. has only earned one spot in the event for the Paris Games. He finished 11th at the most recent world championships.
• Cassiel Rousseau (Australia) – The only time in the last four years a Chinese diver didn’t win gold at the world championships was in 2023, and that was thanks to Rousseau, who bested Yang and Cao for a world title that year, the first ever for Australia in that event. Rousseau, 23, didn’t compete at this year’s worlds so he could instead prepare for Paris. He already has a sixth place finish in the synchro platform event last week.
• Oleksii Sereda (Ukraine) – Sereda is looking to become the first Ukrainian man to medal in men’s platform at the Olympics. He finished third at the 2024 worlds, and sixth at the Tokyo Olympics. 
• Randal Willars (Mexico) – The 22-year-old finished fourth at the world championships this year, and has an outside chance at a medal in his first Olympics. 
• Rikuto Tamai (Japan) – Tamai was Japan’s youngest diving national champion when he won in 2019 at 12 years old. The now 17-year-old will be competing in his second Olympics. He finished seventh in Tokyo, and won silver at the world championships in 2022. 
• Noah Williams (Great Britain) – The silver medalist in the synchro platform last week, Williams now tries for another medal at his first Olympics. He finished seventh in the individual platform at worlds this year.