The 2016 Rio Olympics diving competition continues on Thursday, as the women head to the platform for the women’s 10m platform for the semifinal and final rounds.
Another women’s event, another dominating performance by China, as the 2016 Rio Olympics continues to be a successful one for the country. During the women’s 10m platform preliminary round on Wednesday, China captured the top two scores, blowing away the rest of the field. China has won every women’s diving event in Rio, and it looks like they will add another gold on Thursday.
The top scorer on Wednesday was Si Yajie, who came into the event as the front-runner for the gold medal. After fellow countrywoman Shi Tingmao dominated this event for so many years, Yajie has become the new face in Chinese diving, and she showed why on during the prelims. The 17-year old posted a score of 397.45 during her five dives, scoring 80.00 or more twice.
Teammate Ren Qian finished second overall Wednesday, as her five dives netted her 385.80 points. Like Yajie, Qian also had two dives over 80.00, giving the pair four of the six dives of 80.00 or more for the entire competition. Qian is likely to join Yajie on the podium on Thursday.
American Jessica Parratto put on a wonderful show on Wednesday, finishing third overall. Her score of 346.80 was nearly 40.00 points lower than Qian, but she should have some good momentum heading into Thursday.
Of the 28 divers who competed on Wednesday, only 18 have advanced to the semifinal round to take place at 9:00am ET on Thursday. Once all 18 divers complete their five dives, the field will then be cut to 12, as the final round takes place Thursday afternoon.
While it may be a foregone conclusion that China will take two of the three medals available, there are still some very good divers left in the competition. The task may be high for divers like Parratto, or Tonia Couch of Great Britain, but anything can happen in the Olympics.
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Details for the Olympics diving competition on Thursday are below:
Date: Thursday, August 17
Start Time: 9:00am ET (semifinal), 3:00pm ET (final)
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
TV Info: NBC (Not live, semifinal coverage at 2:00pm ET), (Not live, final coverage at 8:00pm ET)
Live Stream: NBCOlympics.com
The final diving event of the 2016 Rio Olympics will begin on Friday, as the men take to the platform for their own 10m competition.