In 2021, China's Xie Siyi won the Olympic gold medal in the men's 3m springboard diving competition. In the years since, he largely stepped away from diving, opting instead to get married and earn his master's degree.
Siyi returned to the Olympics this year, but had been overshadowed by his teammate, Wang Zongyuan, thus far. Earlier this week, Wang led by 21 points after the preliminary round of men's springboard, and 32 points after the semis.
Thankfully for Xie, all scores go back to zero for the final.
It was apparent early that the day would be a two-horse battle between the two Chinese divers. Xie won Round 1, and Wang Round 2. But then Rounds 3-5 were all Xie, and he built a lead no one could catch on the way to his second straight gold medal.
Xie led by 15 points going into the sixth and final dive. It was already likely to be tough for his teammate to make up that ground, but Xie made sure to not leave anything to chance. He stepped up for a forward 4 1½ somersault, and scored the highest of any dive on the day to that point. The 100.70 clinched his gold before Wang could even respond.
Wang did the same dive and scored better, receiving 102.60 points, but still fell 13 points shy of Xie.
Xie finished with a score of 543.60. Wang, who won gold in Paris in synchronized springboard and was the defending silver medalist in the individual event, finished with 530.20.
Thursday was the third time in the last four Olympics that China has finished 1-2 in men's springboard. China has also won gold in all six diving competitions so far at these Games.
The bronze medal was mostly locked up early by Mexico’s Osmar Olvera. Olvera, who won silver in the synchro springboard competition, led the fourth-place diver by more than 50 points going into the final dive on Thursday. His sixth dive, a forward 2 ½ with three twists, received a score of 93.60, and he finished third by 71 points.
It was also a breakout day for 20-year-old Carson Tyler of the U.S. The first-time Olympian was 10th after the prelims and seventh after the semis. He finished Thursday with three dives over 70 points, and landed in fourth place, the best result for an American in the event since 1996.
Tyler will also compete in the men’s platform competition — which is considered his better event — starting on Friday.
The full results from Thursday's final are listed below.
Men's 3m springboard final
- Xie Siyi (China) 543.60
- Wang Zongyuan (China) 530.20
- Osmar Olvera (Mexico) 500.40
- Carson Tyler (USA) 429.25
- Jordan Houlden (Great Britain) 427.75
- Luis Uribe (Colombia) 421.85
- Jack Laugher (Great Britain) 401.95
- Jules Bouyer (France) 395.70
- Jonathan Ruvalcaba (Dominican Republic) 393.65
- Kurtis Mathews (Australia) 383.40
- Haram Woo (South Korea) 374.15
- Moritz Wesemann (Germany) 363.65