After the deception in the men’s event on Monday, the Chinese were just perfect in today’s women’s 10m platform synchro final, earning gold in 363.78. Since the introduction of synchro diving events at the 2000 Games in Sydney, China never lost this final – pretty much as in the FINA World Championships, where the only defeat for the Asians happened in the distant year of 1998!
At 17 and 15 respectively, Zhang Jiaqi and Chen Yuxi got their first Olympic medal, giving absolutely no chances for the remaining seven pairs in the final. The difference of points to the second ranked duet – USA (Jessica Parratto/Delaney Schnell), silver in 310.80 – reveals the performance gap between a flawless final and a regular one. The bronze medal went to Mexico (Gabriela Agundez/Alejandra Orozco, 299.70).
Both Zhang and Chen have one world title each, from the 2019 FINA World Championships, held in Gwangju (KOR) – Zhang then paired with Lu Wei for the gold in this event, while Chen is the current world champion in the individual 10m platform. During the final, at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, the two young divers displayed a very solid programme, not committing a single mistake during their five dives. At the end of the second round – with a DD limited to 2.0 – the Chinese duet was already clearly in the lead, with a 10.20 advantage over the Canadian pair. Then, they progressed with 81.90 points for a forward 3 ½ somersaults (pike), 86.40 for an inward 3 ½ somersaults (tuck) and 84.48 for a final back 2 ½ somersaults 1 ½ twists (pike).
Before the final, the bet for the gold was certainly on China, but for the minor medals, Canada and Malaysia were on the list of favourites. All seemed going in that direction after the first two rounds, but then Mun Yee Leong, diving with Pandelela Pamg for Malaysia, strongly over-rotated in the third combination, and again in the fourth attempt. In the final round, it was Pandelela’s turn to fail the entry – the result of these three mistakes was an unthinkable eighth and last position for Malaysia in the final.
The Asian nation had been third at the 2017 Worlds, second in 2019 and also silver medallist in Rio 2016. In case Pandelela had won a medal today, she would have become the only female athlete of her country with three Olympic medals – all sports included. She previously had the 2016 silver and a bronze in the individual 10m in London 2012.
Canada was also in a good position to enter the podium, but a disastrous fourth round, when Caeli McKay (competing with Meaghan Benfeito) entered very short on the back 3 ½ somersaults, ruined all the hopes for the North American duet. Benfeito had been third in Rio 2016 (with Roseline Filion), and fourth at the Worlds 2017 and 2019. In Tokyo, Canada couldn’t avoid a new fourth spot, finishing 0.54 behind the Mexican team.
In the meantime, while Malaysia and Canada were experiencing their problems, USA and Mexico were able to remain quite stable throughout the final. Despite over-rotating in the last dive, Schnell, was solid in the remaining attempts. Parratto also didn’t commit major errors, and the final prize was their first Olympic medal and also US sole Olympic podium presence in the women’s 10m synchro since its inception in 2000.
In the Mexican team, the experience of Orozco was precious for this outcome. Already silver medallist in the event in London 2012 (at the time, with Paola Espinosa), she displayed a solid performance and certainly inspired younger Agundez, who won her first medal at this level. This is the third time Mexico climbs to the podium in this event: after the 2012 success, Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz were silver medallists in Rio 2016.
#Diving Orozco Loza & Agundez Garcia bring home the 3rd medal for #MEX in this event at the Olympic Games! pic.twitter.com/bV4xWJgO0h
— FINA (@fina1908) July 27, 2021
QUOTES
GOLD
Zhang Jiaqi (CHN):
On whether their young age - ZHANG is 17, CHEN 15 - is an advantage in diving:
“We do have an advantage in our age. We are short and light, and this means that our entry is better than the others. Our weakness is we are inexperienced. They have much more experience, we only have one world championships. We have a good generation of divers, but we are also mixed with older divers. We can learn a lot from our elders.”
Chen Yuxi (CHN):
On whether China earning the silver medal on Monday in men’s synchronised 10m platform removed some of the pressure from herself and ZHANG:
“It did not make a big influence on us. We just put our focus on us. We believed that we could do it.”
On whether she and ZHANG feel nervous because of their age and lack of experience:
“Yes, sure, of course we can feel the pressure because we are young, (but) we have nothing to lose. We are brave to face any challenges.”
SILVER
Jessica Parratto (USA):
On improving through the competition after starting slowly with the required dives:
“I knew that we could do really good optionals, so I wasn’t concerned about it. I tried to keep going dive by dive, not thinking about anything else ... that was in the past. That was obviously really what propelled us forward and allowed us to just focus on what was happening in the moment.”
On when they knew they could win silver:
“I didn’t know until pretty much the last dive. Just absolutely insane. I feel like this event is always so close, so there’s always that team that’s kind of fighting to get almost a bronze. That’s kind of what my mindset was. But to come away with a silver is just mind-blowing, honestly. It just goes to show that if you stay focused and you’re confident, anything can happen.”
Delaney Schnell (USA):
On their performance:
“For me, it was just taking it one dive at a time. Every dive counts so if you miss there’s still four more dives, so you can’t let one dive get you down.”
On her approach to the competition:
“This is my first Olympics, and my first event in the Olympics, and so for me I tried not to have expectations and just to enjoy every moment. I went into this event very confident. The nerves weren’t really there, and I was like, 'I have a really good feeling about this'.”
On competing at her first Olympic Games:
“Honestly, for me it’s been everything and more than I could have imagined, even with COVID protocols. I don’t feel that it’s been all that different from a standard Olympic Games other than there’s no spectators. We still have the (Olympic) Village, we still have the food courts, we still have the access to all these things that we thought we wouldn’t. Really it’s having no expectation, that helped a lot.”
BRONZE
Gabriela Agundez (MEX):
On how she’s feeling:
"We feel really happy, very excited and satisfied with our work. It’s something we’ve been working on for a long time. It’s resulted in this with Ale, with Ivan (Bautista, coach), with our team and all of our family supporting us."
On how they stayed consistent when many other divers made errors:
"The key was staying calm. We knew we had done our dive.”
Alejandra Orozco (MEX):
On when they knew that they were medallists:
"Me and Gabi had this in our minds, we dreamed of it for years, we have come a long way. We felt pretty good but there was still Germany. We’re all Olympians and anything can happen, we both said we have to wait for that result. After Germany (fifth) jumped and their results went up, we knew we’d be medallists. We didn’t know by how much and what was happening with Canada (fourth), but we knew we were in. We were jumping with adrenaline, Ivan was with us, the whole team was with us, and everyone is in Mexico watching on the TV, and for sure everyone is diving with us.”