China Wins 3rd Diving Gold Medal of Tokyo Olympics; US Repeats at Silver

TOKYO 2020 SUMMER OLYMPICS – DIVING

China’s “diving dream team,” which came into the Olympics with hopes of a gold medal sweep, faced a hiccup in the first men’s synchronized event on platform, but on Wednesday they got back on track with a victory in 3-meter men’s synchro thanks to Wang Zongyuan and Xie Siyi.

Xie paired with Cao Yun, the individual silver medalist on 3-meter, to win the World Championship in 2019, but now he finds himself with a new partner in Wang, who is the defending World Champion in the non-Olympic 1-meter event.

Men’s 3-Meter Synchro Final Results:

  1. China (Wang Zongyuan/Xie Siyi) – 467.82
  2. USA (Andrew Capobianco/Michael Hixon) – 444.36
  3. Germany (Patrick Hausding/Lars Rudiger) – 404.73
  4. Mexico (Yahel Castillo Huerta/Juan Celaya Hernandez) – 400.14
  5. Japan (Sho Sakai/Ken Terauchi) – 393.93
  6. Italy (Lorenzo Marsaglia/Giovanni Tocci) – 388.05
  7. Great Britain (Daniel Goodfellow/Jack Laugher) – 382.80
  8. Evgenii Kuznetsov/Nikita Shleikher) – 331.08

China’s duo saved their best for last, with a psectacular 99-point dive on their final five, a 109C (4 1/2 somersaults tuck), which was also their hardest dive. All but one pair in the field did this dive, but for comparison’s sake, the runner-up Americans scored only 88 points on the same dive. That’s the difference between China averaging 8.5s and 9.0s and the Americans averaging 7.5s and 8.0s.

Meanwhile, the American pair of Michael Hixon and Andrew Capobianco took silver, finishing well ahead of Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Lars Rudiger for silver. This is the second-consecutive Olympic silver medal for Team USA in the event. In Rio, Hixon paired with Sam Dornan for 2nd place, but he teamed up with Capobianco after Dornan’s retirement in 2018.

While China has dominated this event recently, winning 6 of the last 7 Olympic gold medals, it is an event where the US has had more success than any other country over the history of the Olympics, winning 15 out of 25 all-time gold medals.

Germany jumped into bronze medal position on the final dive thanks to an 85-pointer, easily their best score of the competition. Russia, who were 4th entering the final round and had a serious chance to medal, wound up failing their final dive and scoring 0 points to miss the podium.

Diving Medals Table After Completion of Synchro Events

 
Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  China 3 1 0 4
2  Great Britain 1 0 0 1
3  United States 0 2 0 2
4  Canada 0 1 0 1
5  Germany 0 0 2 2
6  Mexico 0 0 1 1
 ROC 0 0 1 1
Totals (7 nations) 4 4 4 12

Videos:

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DIVING SCHEDULE

  • Sunday, July 25 – Women’s Synchronized 3m Springboard Final (Complete)
  • Monday, July 26 – Men’s Synchronized 10m Platform Final (Complete)
  • Tuesday, July 27 – Women’s Synchronized 10m Platform Final (Complete)
  • Wednesday, July 28 – Men’s Synchronized 3m Springboard Final (Complete)
  • Friday, July 30 – Women’s 3m Springboard Preliminary
  • Saturday, July 31 – Women’s 3m Springboard Semifinal
  • Saturday, August 1 – Women’s 3m Springboard Final
  • Monday, August 2 – Men’s 3m Springboard Preliminary
  • Tuesday, August 3 – Men’s 3m Springboard Semifinal & Final
  • Wednesday, August 4 – Women’s 10m Platform Preliminary
  • Thursday, August 5 – Women’s 10m Platform Semifinal & Final
  • Friday, August 6 – Men’s 10m Platform Preliminary
  • Saturday, August 7 – Men’s 10m Platform Semifinal & Final

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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