Diving at the Summer Olympics facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Diving at the Summer Olympics |
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| Governing body | FINA |
| Events | 8 (men: 4; women: 4) |
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Diving is an exciting sport where athletes jump or fall into water from a platform or springboard. They perform amazing acrobatic moves like flips and twists before splashing down. Diving became an official sport at the Summer Olympic Games in 1904. Back then, it was sometimes called "fancy diving" because of all the cool stunts divers did. Diving is part of a group of water sports, including swimming, synchronised swimming, and water polo. All these sports are managed by the International Swimming Federation (FINA).
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Diving's Olympic Journey
Diving has a long and interesting history at the Olympics.
Early Days of Olympic Diving
When diving first appeared at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, men competed in two events. One was "fancy high diving," where divers showed off their acrobatic skills from a high platform. The other was a unique event called "plunge for distance." In this event, divers jumped into the water and had to stay completely still underwater. The winner was the one who traveled the farthest. This "plunge for distance" event was soon replaced because it wasn't very exciting to watch.
At the 1908 Summer Olympics, men's springboard diving was added. This meant divers could bounce off a flexible board to get more height for their tricks. Women started competing in diving at the 1912 Summer Olympics in the platform event. By the 1920 Summer Olympics, women also had their own springboard diving event.
There was also a "plain high diving" event for men. In this event, divers performed a simple, straight jump from the platform without any flips or twists. This event was last held at the 1924 Summer Olympics. After that, it combined with "fancy high diving" to become one "highboard diving" competition.
Modern Olympic Diving
For many years, the diving events stayed the same, with two men's and two women's events. But at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, something new was added: synchronized diving. In synchronized diving, two divers perform the exact same dive at the same time, trying to be perfectly in sync. This addition brought the total number of diving events to eight: four for men and four for women.
A big change in the sport happened at the 1984 Summer Olympics. This was the first time China competed in diving at the Olympics. Since then, Chinese divers have become incredibly strong, winning many gold medals and showing amazing skill.
Olympic Diving Medals
Here's a look at which countries have won the most medals in Olympic diving from 1904 to 2020:
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States (USA) |
49 | 46 | 46 | 141 |
| 2 |  China (CHN) |
47 | 24 | 10 | 81 |
| 3 |  Sweden (SWE) |
6 | 8 | 7 | 21 |
| 4 |  Russia (RUS) |
4 | 8 | 6 | 18 |
| 5 |  Soviet Union (URS) |
4 | 4 | 6 | 14 |
| 6 |  Italy (ITA) |
3 | 5 | 3 | 11 |
| 7 |  Australia (AUS) |
3 | 3 | 8 | 14 |
| 8 |  United Team of Germany (EUA) |
3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 |  Germany (GER) |
2 | 8 | 12 | 22 |
| 10 |  Great Britain (GBR) |
2 | 3 | 8 | 13 |
| 11 |  East Germany (GDR) |
2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 12 |  Mexico (MEX) |
1 | 7 | 7 | 15 |
| 13 |  Canada (CAN) |
1 | 5 | 8 | 14 |
| 14 |  Czechoslovakia (TCH) |
1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 15 |  Denmark (DEN) |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 16 |  Greece (GRE) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 17 |  Unified Team (EUN) |
0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 18 |  Egypt (EGY) |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
 Malaysia (MAS) |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 20 |  France (FRA) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 |  Ukraine (UKR) |
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 22 |  Republic of China (ROC) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (22 entries) | 130 | 130 | 131 | 391 | |
See also
In Spanish: Saltos en los Juegos Olímpicos para niños
