history - olympic games - competition - rules & taking part

The Competition

There are springboard (3 metres from the surface, 4.8 metres long and 50cm wide) and highboard (10 metre platform, at least 6 metres long and 2 metres wide, with an overhang of 1.5 metres over the water's edge) events for both men and women. Points up to a maximum of ten are scored for each dive, depending on technical skill, elegance, and, in the new paired discipline, synchronisation, with marks counted by a panel of seven judges (nine for synchronised) who consider approach, take-off, execution of the dive and entry into the water. The minimum water depth for the pool is 4.5 metres, with most pools tending to be 5 metres deep.
In individual diving events, a preliminary round leaves 18 in the semi-finals, with 12 of those progressing to the finals. Both semi-final and final scores determine the final results.

Eight pairs of divers compete in synchronised events. The pairs of dives must include one set of forward facing dives, one set of backward facing dives and one set where the divers take off facing different ways.

Scores are adjusted for degree of difficulty, based on the type of dive, such as somersaults, pikes, tucks and twists. The divers must inform judges which dives they will perform 24 hours before competition.

Perhaps the most difficult dive in the sport is that introduced by Tony Ali, who will compete for Britain in Sydney; the two and a half somersaults with one and a half twists with pike.

All divers must perform a number of fixed elements. The springboard competition consists of five groups: front, back, reverse, inward and twisting, while the highboard includes one more, the armstand dive.

After judges have given their scores, the highest and lowest are discarded, and the remaining scores are added, then multiplied by the degree of difficulty.

That number is then multiplied by 0.6 to get a final score to ensure that scores are historically relevant; there used to be only three judges instead of the five that count for marks today. Scoring, a balance of subjectivity and objectivity, can often be controversial.