Delaney Schnell ended her first Olympic Games by placing fifth in the Women’s 10-Meter Platform finals. Her finish marks the best U.S. finish since Laura Wilkinson’s fourth place performance in 2004. Schnell, who earned Team USA’s first-ever silver medal in the Women’s 10-Meter Synchronized event with partner Jessica Parratto earlier in the Games, placed third in both the qualifying and semifinal rounds of the competition.
Schnell began the final round scoring 8’s on her first dive, Back 2½ Somersaults 1½ Twists Pike, putting her into second place. Of the 20 dives she performed throughout the Olympic Games, only one dive was scored below 6.5’s by the judges, that dive being her third of finals where she scored 5.5’s on her Back 3½ Somersaults Tuck. Schnell rallied on her fourth dive nailing her Front with 3 1/2 Somersaults Pike for 8.5’s and 9’s. Going into the final round of dives, the gap to eventual bronze medalist Melissa Wu from Australia was 11 points. Wu nailed her final dive scoring 8.5’s making the gap insurmountable for Schnell without complete perfection. She ended her list with 6.5’s on her Inward 3½ Somersaults Tuck securing her top 5 finish in her second event of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
“I’m really excited with how this Olympics went. Obviously it would have been nice to come away with a medal in individual but it just goes to show what I’m capable of doing and I know that come 3 years from now I’ll be more prepared than ever,” said Delaney Schnell, “This team was very young and very new and I think that’s a huge part of what made it special, I think that’s also what made it to where none of us had expectations we came into it just to enjoy it. This is all of our lifelong dream so for us to all even be here it’s pretty special.”
This marks the first Olympic Games since 1988 that female U.S. divers have earned more than one medal and when asked how the success of the U.S. Olympic Diving team in Tokyo will impact the future of diving in the U.S. she said, “It goes to show we’ve come a really long way in the sport and we have a ton of growth to continue to do. I’m really excited to see where the future goes with USA Diving.”
Teammate Katrina Young also competed in the morning’s preliminary round but missed making the finals of the competition ending her second Olympic Games by placing 17th.
Competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games continues tomorrow with the Men’s Platform competition where Brandon Loschiavo and Jordan Windle will represent the United States in the preliminary round.
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