This is a collaboration between Brittney Cabral and Krissy Draper
Women’s Synchronised 3m Springboard
Sunday, July 25th marked the beginning of the Olympic diving competition. The women’s synchronised 3m springboard competition was the first event for the Tokyo competition. Canada was well-represented in the competition with Olympic veteran, Jennifer Abel, and Olympic rookie, Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu, competing.
Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu earned a final score of 300.78 to earn their spot on the podium. The Canadian gals were just behind the Chinese duo, Shi Tingmao and Wang Han, who tailed a final score of 326.40. Lena Hentschel and Tina Punzel of Germany finished out of the podium in the bronze medal position with a final score of 284.97. The Canadian duo have been runners-up to China on the international stage, and these Olympics were no different. The silver medal that Abel and Cirtini-Beaulieu won in the synchronized 3m springboard event was Abel’s second Olympic medal and Cirtini-Beaulieu’s first Olympic medal of her career.
The Canadian duo was fifth after the first round after performing a back dive. In their second round of competition, Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu performed a reverse dive that set them back to sixth place overall. With the first two rounds of the competition finished, the dives became more difficult. In competition rules, the first two dives are intended to be less difficult so that the competitors, as well as, the judges can focus on the execution and synchronization of the two dives.
Now that the competition is in the third round, the dives become more difficult and technically sound. The Canadian divers chose to perform a 3.0 level of difficulty dive; a forward 2 ½ somersault with 1 twist in pike position that they landed. Their overall score of 67.50 skyrocketed the Canadian duo to third place overall out of 8 teams. Not too bad for one single dive.
The Canadian duo decided to do their most difficult dive in the 4th round. A forward 3 ½ somersault in pike position launched the Canadians into second place. The 3.1 degree of difficulty was their most difficult dive of the competition but Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu did not struggle. Their dive was flawless, landing them a score of 70.78 points.
Heading into the fifth and final round, the Canadian duo was in second place, just behind the Chinese duo. Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu completed an inward 2 ½ somersaults in pike position that landed them a score of 70.20. The dive that carried a 3.0 difficulty put the Canadians final score over the 300 mark which secured the two Canadians a silver medal. This is Canada’s best result in any diving event since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
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