In every diving competition at the Paris Olympics, in order to beat the Chinese divers you must be absolutely perfect ... and hope the Chinese make mistakes.
In the men's synchronized 3m springboard final on Friday, China's Long Daoyi and Wang Zongyuan did make mistakes and Mexico's Juan Celaya Hernandez and Osmar Olvera Ibara were nearly perfect. But in the end, China's mistakes weren't big enough and Mexico was ever so slightly less than perfect. With a final score of 446.1, Long and Wang took gold by 2.07 points over Mexico for China's sweep of the synchronized diving events in Paris.
The pressure was really on for China in the fourth of six rounds on Friday. On the fourth dive, Long and Wang both had poor entry into the water and bent legs on their reverse somersault with 3 1/2 twists. Their score of 77.7 opened the door to be overtaken, and Mexico stepped right through. Celaya and Olvera performed an inward 3 1/2 somersault, and scored 85.68, the highest scoring dive of the day to that point. The Mexicans moved into first, marking the first time in the Paris Olympics any Chinese divers have trailed.
“I made two twist errors. This should not have happened," Long said. "This was my first Olympics, and I was quite nervous, so I made some errors... My teammate has been encouraging me all this time. After these two errors I struggled to find my confidence back, but my teammate has been telling me there’s nothing to fear.”
"It was the first time we jumped together (at the Olympics), but we tried our best," said Wang, who was the defending gold medalist in the event with a different partner. "Now it’s finished."
China's mistakes were minimal the rest of the way, which didn't help Mexico — or anyone's — chances. On dive No. 5, Long and Wang scored 85.68 to move back into first by 1.09 points.
On the final dive, China went first among the podium contenders. Long and Wang did a forward 4 1/2 with a 3.8 degree of difficulty. Mexico's gold medal hopes hung on the possibility of the Chinese making a mistake. If they did, it was imperceptible. The dive scored 95.76.
Great Britain's Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher performed the same dive in Round 6 and scored 94.62, clinching their spot on the podium. They finished the day third for Team GB's second diving medal in these Olympics.
"Before being with Jack, I was a boy. I feel like a man today," Harding said. "No matter what the outcome was, I felt like I’ve become a man, and that’s thanks to Jack and the coaches."
“We have worked very hard this year and it was an extremely close competition," Laugher said. "We had a wonderful performance with just a few little mistakes, which meant that we were just a couple points shy of China and Mexico, but what me and Anthony have achieved today is unbelievable... For Anthony’s first Olympic Games, and my fourth, I’m just so happy to come away with a medal together.”
Celaya and Olvera stepped to the board to perform a forward 2 1/2 with three twists, the toughest dive of the competition with a degree of difficulty of 3.9. The Mexicans jumped, flipped, spun, and were nearly flawless, but not enough. The dive scored 94.7, and they accepted their silver.
This is what we’ve been working for all day, all night. We’ve been sleeping, we’ve been dreaming about this moment, and being able to make it reality, being able to feel the cheer of the people, our support of the whole country behind your backs is amazing.
Friday was Celaya and Olvera's personal best day of synchro diving by more than 20 points. Their silver was the first Olympic medal for Mexico in the event.
The men's synchro springboard was the closest competition for China in Paris so far. The country won the previous synchro events by an average of 31.05 points.
With the win, China gets its synchro sweep as the diving competition now moves to the individual events. The Chinese are still on pace to win gold in every diving event in Paris, a feat never accomplished by a single country since diving moved to eight competitions.
It was a tough day for the American duo of Tyler Downs and Greg Duncan, who finished eighth out of eight competitors. They looked good on the first two dives, and sat tied for fourth going into Round 3. On the third dive, a forward 2 1/2 somersault with two twists, Duncan slipped out of the flip and just barely made it into the water headfirst. The mistake dropped the American's execution score to 2, and they finished with a 37.4 on the dive.
Italy's Lorenzo Marsaglia and Giovanni Tocci (403.05) finished fourth, followed by Jules Bouyer and Alexis Jandard of France (369.30), Adrian Abadia and Nicolas Garcia of Spain (361.62), and Oleg Kolodiy and Danylo Konovalov of Ukraine (348.27) in fifth, sixth, and seventh.