China’s unparalleled achievements in Olympic diving has shapes the sport’s global landscape, making it a force to be reckoned with at every Olympic Games.
Diving debuted at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, and for the next 80 years, the USA dominated the medal standings. However, in 1984, the People’s Republic of China entered the competition, reshaping its landscape.
Since Zhou Jihong clinched China’s first gold in the women’s 10m platform at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. China had secured 40 gold medals out of 56 possible, consistently leading the diving medal tally at every subsequent Games. Widely hailed as the world’s premier diving team, they have also contributed more medals to China’s Olympic haul than any other sport, earning them the moniker “Dream Team” in their homeland.
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In Tokyo, China achieved a historic diving performance by winning gold in seven out of eight events, finishing second in the men’s synchronized 10m. Xie Siyi became the first male diver in two decades to triumph in both the individual and synchronized 3m springboard at the same Olympics, while 14-year-old Quan Hongchan dazzled with perfect scores from all judges in two of her five dives en route to winning the 10m platform event.
Since synchronized events were introduced in Sydney 2000, China has aimed for a clean sweep of all eight gold medals. They started strongly with five golds in Sydney and improved to six in Athens four years later. In Beijing 2008, hosting the Olympics, they missed only one gold in the 10m platform. In London 2012, they lost both men’s individual events, finishing with six golds.
Their closest brush with perfection came at Rio 2016, where the women’s team secured all four golds, narrowly missing a sweep as Cao Yuan and Qin Kai were edged out by Great Britain in the synchronized 3m springboard event.
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