Mexican diving superstar Osmar Olvera had a historic showing on the 3m springboard in Singapore today.
The 21-year-old ran up a score of 529.55 in the event final to win gold. It breaks a streak dating back to 2007 of China bringing home the gold for this event at every World Championships.
To get the victory, Olvera had to outperform two Chinese veterans, Cao Yuan and Wang Zongyuan, who ended the final as the respective gold and silver medalists. The trio traded the top spot throughout the first four rounds. Olvera took control in the penultimate dive, scoring a 102.60. He held the lead on the last dive to beat Cao by over six points. Wang was the 3x defending World Champion in the event, adding to China’s win streak, while Cao was the event’s 2016 Olympic Champion.
This marks Olvera’s second world title, following his 1m gold at the 2024 World Championships in Doha. Watch his event-leading 102.60 penultimate dive as well as his final his final dive from today’s final below:
“In the morning, I was really sure today I could beat the Chinese divers,” Olmera told World Aquatics. I thought ‘I will be a champion today. Today is the day I get a gold medal.’”
Wang and Zheng Jiuyuan took the 3m synchro event earlier in the week. Olvera and his synchro partner, Juan Celaya, repeated their 2024 Paris result by placing second. Zheng and Olvera placed first and second, respectively, in the 1m springboard.
China and Mexico carried their individual and synchro dominance over to the team competition. China’s foursome won the event with 466.25 points, while Mexico, led by Olvera, earned 2nd with 426.30 points.
Olvera has now earned a milestone ten medals between Olympics and World Championships. The Mexico City native made history last year by being the first Mexican in over 40 years to win multiple medals at the same Olympics.
Whoop! Great to see Mexico beat China in an event that is contested at the Olympics. Diving is better when more than one nation can challenge for the gold