Diving at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Dates 10 – 23 August 2008
Medal Events 8

The 2008 diving events were contested at the Beijing Olympic Aquatics Centre, better known as the Water Cube. This was also the site of swimming and synchronized swimming in 2008. Once again there were eight diving events on the Olympic Program, with four for men and women, with both individual and synchronized events on springboard and platform. Australia’s Matt Mitcham won the gold on men’s platform, but the other seven events were won by Chinese divers, who were now as dominant as the United States had been from 1920-84. They won 11 of 24 medals, although since only one duo per nation may compete in synchronized events, and only two per nation in individual events, China actually won 11 of a possible 12 medals. The only change in format was that the men’s synchronized events were increased to six dives, instead of five, while women continued with only five. There was a change in scoring in 2008, however. From 1996-2004, qualifying round scores carried over to the semi-finals and semi-final scores carried over to the final round. But in 2008, each round started anew, with no scores carried over.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Springboard, Men Olympic 18 – 19 August 2008 29 20
Platform, Men Olympic 22 – 23 August 2008 30 18
Synchronized Springboard, Men Olympic 13 August 2008 16 8
Synchronized Platform, Men Olympic 11 August 2008 16 8
Springboard, Women Olympic 15 – 17 August 2008 30 19
Platform, Women Olympic 20 – 21 August 2008 29 19
Synchronized Springboard, Women Olympic 10 August 2008 16 8
Synchronized Platform, Women Olympic 12 August 2008 16 8
140 (67/73) 29 (24/25)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Springboard, Men He ChongCHN Alexandre DespatieCAN Qin KaiCHN
Platform, Men Matt MitchamAUS Zhou LuxinCHN Gleb GalperinRUS
Synchronized Springboard, Men People's Republic of ChinaCHN Russian FederationRUS UkraineUKR
Synchronized Platform, Men People's Republic of ChinaCHN GermanyGER Russian FederationRUS
Springboard, Women Guo JingjingCHN Yuliya PakhalinaRUS Wu MinxiaCHN
Platform, Women Chen RuolinCHN Émilie HeymansCAN Wang XinCHN
Synchronized Springboard, Women People's Republic of ChinaCHN Russian FederationRUS GermanyGER
Synchronized Platform, Women People's Republic of ChinaCHN AustraliaAUS MexicoMEX

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
People's Republic of China CHN 7 1 3 11
Australia AUS 1 1 0 2
Russian Federation RUS 0 3 2 5
Canada CAN 0 2 0 2
Germany GER 0 1 1 2
Mexico MEX 0 0 1 1
Ukraine UKR 0 0 1 1