Olympic diving: Scoring, tiny splashes and why divers shower after each dive

The 2024 Paris Olympics are here and the world is watching the phenomenally entertaining spectacle that sports fans look forward to every four years with the Summer Olympics. Among many sports that receive extremely amplified attention during these Olympic Games in comparison to the rest of the year (or other three years) is diving.

It's always impressive to watch Olympic diving and see these athletes truly defy logic for those of us with not even an inkling of the ability that they display. The turns, the flips, the precision, and so much more is all incredible to witness.

Having said that, it's also a sport wherein the unfamiliarity of many sports fans leads to a bit of confusion. How exactly is Olympic diving scored? Is the goal just to make a tiny splash after twisting and turning in the air? Why are these divers getting into a shower after they dive into a big pool of water?

These are all valid questions, and they're valid questions we're going to answer to have you prepared for the Olympics.

Why do divers shower after every dive at the Olympics?

Divers shower immediately after every dive to help prevent cramping and to stay warm. One thing that some fans watching the Olympics might not realize is that these showers are dispersing hot water over the athletes, which is where the process starts. Divers go off of their platform and into a cool (though not cold) pool but then immediately get out and step into the air-conditioned enviroment in the arena for the event. That could cause muscles to tense up and potentially cramp. So the solution is to step into the hot shower, which loosens up the muscles and ultimately helps them avoid any such issues that could otherwise crop up.

How is diving scored at the Olympics? Are we looking for tiny splashes?

To some degree, the tiny splash indeed has an effect on how diving is scored and judged at the Olympics. However, to fully unpack this, we actually need to break down both the individual and synchronized events because they actually have separate scoring criteria for reasons that will make sense momentarily.

How individual diving is scored at the Olympics

A panel of seven judges scores every dive individually on a scale from 1-to-10 (half-points are included) based on four criteria: 1. Starting position/approach, 2. Take-off, 3. Flight, 4. Entry into the water. That last part is part of the tiny splashes that they are looking for but every part of the dive is judged.

The two highest and two lowest scores are then eliminated from the scoring of the dive to prevent outliers in either direction. Those three remaining median scores are added together to give us what's called the execution score -- but that's only one part of the equation. What's interesting is that the degree of difficulty for each dive is actually scored beforehand and then factored into the final score for a given dive. The execution score is multiplied by the degree of difficulty to give the final score.

How synchronized diving is scored at the Olympics

Some aspects of scoring synchronized diving are similar to individual scoring. However, when judging two divers working together, that inherently changes some things.

For starters, there are 11 judges scoring synchronized diving. However, different groups of judges from those 11 have different things to watch. Three of them watch one of the divers while another three judges watch the other diver in the pair. That leaves the remaining five judges to score the synchronization of the two divers together. Some of the scores are still taken away but that is also different from the individual events. The median scores from the two groups of three judges are used while the three median scores from the group of five judges focused on synchronization are used. Those remaining five scores are then multiplied by 0.6 before then being, like in the individual events, being multiplied by the difficulty of the dive attempt to get the final score.

The groups of three judges use the same criteria for execution as in the individual events to arrive at their score. Meanwhile, the group of five judges look for six things when scoring the synchronization of a dive: 1. Starting position/approach, 2. Take-off (similarity of height is factored in), 3. Coordinated timing of movements in the air, 4. Angles of entry, 5. Distance from diving board at entry into water, 6. Timing of entry. Those last four elements are all about the two divers being coordinated and in tandem with one another, which is an added degree of difficulty in itself when it comes to this event.