Witnessing an Olympic event is a once in a life time experience for most people. I was lucky enough to have the chance to see the women's 3m springboard diving semi-finals at the London Summer Olympics on 4th of August 2012. This day was to be remembered as 'Super Saturday' - the day when the British team won most medals.
The event spanned from the 29th of July to the 11th of August at the Aquatic Centre within the Olympic Park and featured 136 athletes representing 25 countries.
Diving was one of the four aquatic sports at the Games (along with swimming, synchronised swimming and polo) and hosted competitions in eight events (men and women events of): 3m springboard, synchronised 3m springboard, 10m platform, and synchronised 10m platform.
As far as the qualifiers were concerned, a nation could have no more than 16 divers qualify (up to eight males and eight females) and could enter up to two divers in individual events and one pair in synchronised events.
On the day, I vividly remember the excitement that gripped the crowd every time an athlete was drawing in breath, preparing to take the plunge. One after the other, 18 divers performed, with only the best 12 advancing to the finals. A flip, twist and a splash - each dive seemed to be over in the blink of an eye.
Not surprisingly, the first two places were claimed by the Chinese (at this event they won 10 medals - 6 of them gold), followed by the representatives of Mexico and Italy.
I cannot say that I became a diving fan (the scoring is too technical for my liking), but that day it felt wonderful to be part of such a special sporting event, a memory that I will treasure forever!
This post was written by Antony Bailey of 7S as part of the Sports Journalists Club! If you would like to get your work published, simply visit the PE Office and enquire within!
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