DIVING

What are the stages of competition when diving?

In the individual events, divers first compete in a preliminary round, the men have to do 6 dives, and the women have to do 5. In the semifinals it depends on what style of dive you do how many dives you do. In springboard you have to do 5 and 4 for platform. The finals are set out the same way as the preliminary rounds. Divers have to perform dives from different groups: front, back, reverse, inward, twisting ad for platform only handstand.

Competitors perform different dives and are awarded points up to 10 depending upon their effort and skill. The points are then adjusted for the degree of difficulty based on the number and types of maneuvers that are attempted such as somersault, pikes, tucks and twists. A reverse 1.5 somersault with a 3.5 twists, for example, is among the most difficult. 


A panel of seven judges traditionally scores a dive, judging such elements as approach, take-off, execution and entry into the water. Nine judges assess synchronized diving. Four judge the execution of individual dives, and five assess synchronization - how the pairs mirror height, distance from the springboard or platform, speed of rotation and entry into  
 the water.

What do you need to become a professional diver?

To be a professional diver you need to have lots of time to train and a lot of will power, drive and determination to succeed. And most of all you need to love what you do, whether its diving boxing or anything you will never be good at something if you don’t enjoy it. 

Interview with a professional diver:

I know that you went to the Olympics the last time, how is the experience going to help you?

I think the experience is going to help a lot. I'm sure that it came down to experience for me. I've been diving well, but that's what it comes down to -- it's a mental thing, the experience has helped me a lot. After the last Olympics I had completely retired and I was done, so this is kind of a long way from where I thought I would be four years ago and I am really excited and it makes it just that much better.

How do you collect yourself for the dive?

I just tell myself to breathe and relax. I have to do a lot of jumping around to get it all out of me. So I just tell myself to be confident and do what I know how to do. If I’m in the right frame of mind I always do a lot better than if I am negative, if I tell my self I can do it and I know what I’m doing I find my dive gets a lot higher score than if I tell myself no you cant do this your never going to get it.

What advice would you give for kids who want to make sports their whole life?

For me, it's been great to make sports your whole life, but I feel like what I've learned in my career is that your not going to do extremely well unless your happy outside your sport. You can't completely put one hundred percent of yourself into it. I mean you do every day -- one hundred percent day in and day out in practice, but as soon as you leave the pool, or leave where ever you are, there has got to be more to you, and you have to have a good education so you can keep things in balance.                                                    

Yeah, I agree balance is a big key. I think sports are great. I think all kids should really be involved in sports. There's experience, social skills, everything -- it's good to have a life outside of you sport to have that balance. You need to be happy not just at the pool or on the track, you've got to be happy outside in your life.