Diving

 Diving

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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About diving
 
Diving is the sport of entering the water from high above the pool. While in the air divers twist and turn gracefully before entering the water. Platform diving (also called high diving) is usually done from a tower 10 metres high. Judges decide how good each dive is. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.
Diving is one of the most popular Olympic sports with spectators. Competitors possess many of the same characteristics as gymnasts and dancers, including strength, flexibility, kinaesthetic judgment and air awareness. Some professional divers were originally gymnasts or dancers as both the sports have similar characteristics to diving.
 
Objective
 
Dives are divided into four stages – the starting position, the take-off, the dive itself and the entry into the water. Each of these is judged against a strict set of criteria and the winning divers perform difficult and ambitious dives where every part is as near to perfection as possible. Divers aim to enter the water vertically with as little splash as possible. If you see a diver make no splash at all, you can expect very high marks. In the Synchronised events, the two divers must dive in perfect harmony with each other. 
 
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Rules at a glance

Divers submit in advance the dives which they will perform. The more difficult a dive, the higher the potential score if it is executed correctly: judges award a score out of 10 for each dive, which is multiplied by the dive’s degree of difficulty. In the Synchronised Diving events, pairs of athletes dive in tandem and are assessed for their execution and synchronisation by separate groups of judges – a judge never assesses both execution and synchronisation. The higher the judges’ score, the higher the diver/team is placed.  
Divers may score zero on a dive for double-bouncing on the end of the board, performing a dive other than the one they stated or taking too long to dive. Divers also have marks taken off for restarting a dive or armstand.

 

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