Olympic Diving Preview: Women’s Individual Platform Starts

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Photo Courtesy: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Editorial Coverage Sponsored By FINIS

By Erin Keaveny, Swimming World College Intern

The women’s individual platform preliminaries will begin today at 2:00. Twenty-eight women will compete for the sixteen semifinal spots. The semifinals will take place tomorrow at 9am, followed by finals at 3pm.

Hopefully the wether will be more cooperative then it was for men’s springboard. High winds similar to what the men experienced could have a drastic effect on platform divers because of the platform’s height.

Katrina Young and Jessica Parratto are competing for the United States. Parratto came in seventh earlier this week in synchronized ten-meter with her partner Amy Cozad. They will be facing off against some extremely experienced divers on their quest for the first american individual diving medal in Rio.

Chinese women Si Yajie and Ren Qian head into the event as favorites for the podium. Ren won the FINA diving world cup earlier this year, followed by her teammate Si in second.

Melissa Wu from Australia will be competing as well. She finished third at the world cup behind the top two finishers. Wu was the silver medalist at the 2008 Olympics, and will be searching for another podium finish.

Tonia Couch of Great Britian is also expected to do very well. This will be her third Olympic games. She finished eighth in 2008 in both synchronized and individual platform, and fifth in synchro 10m in 2012. She also won a silver medal at the 2016 European championships.

If this event plays out anything like men’s springboard though, there’s no predicting what could happen.

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