Synchronized Platform, Women

China had won every women’s synchronized platform gold medal since the event was introduced at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the latest Chinse duo of Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi had a big reputation to maintain. The two girls came to the Tokyo Games as world champions. Cheng (aged 15) was the 2019 individual platform champion while 17-year-old Zhang was the synchronized platform champion that year, with Lu Wei.

At the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, they soon showed they were going to be a force to be reckoned with and led from the start and produced one stunning dive after another. They were top scorers after every dive and won the gold medal by a massive 52.98 points from the American pair of Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell, with the Mexicans Gabriela Agúndez and Alejandra Orozco in the bronze medal position. After two dives the Mexicans were lying sixth and seventh respectively, and the Mexican duo only snatched the bronze medal with their last dive from Matsuri Arai and Minami Itahashi of Japan, who dropped from third to sixth

Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito and Caeli McKay, who won the Diving World Cup at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre earlier in 2021, finished fourth, but were in a medal position after three rounds until a bad fourth round cost them dearly. They were attempting the toughest dive of the day, a back three-and-a-half somersaults, but it netted them only 51.48 points, the lowest score of the round. They made some ground on the Mexicans with their final dive but lost out on the bronze by just 0.54 points, and with it went Benfeito’s chance of winning a medal at three successive Games.

There was even bigger disappointment for Malaysia’s 2019 World Championships silver medallists, Leong Mun Yee and her partner Pandelela Rinong (who won silver in Rio), as they finished eighth and last in the fifth Olympics for each of them. After their first dive, however, they were just three points behind the Chinese duo and after two dives were still in a medal position, but a disastrous third dive saw them drop to seventh, from which they never recovered. Like Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito, Rinong also missed out on a third consecutive medal.