Olympics: Jessica Parratto, Delaney Schnell Capture Silver for U.S. in 10-Meter Synchro Diving
Jessica Parratto waited until the fifth and final dive Tuesday afternoon before she started looking around.
She knew that she and fellow American Delaney Schnell had put themselves in a strong position in the women’s 10-meter synchronized diving final at the Tokyo Olympics. She knew they would get stronger as the competition went on and the pair got deeper into their arsenal of three optional dives.
Team USA’s Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell in the women’s 10-meter synchro Tuesday; Photo Courtesy: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
But it wasn’t until the final hit, when Parratto and Schnell nailed their back two-and-a-half with one-and-a-half twists that Parratto, the veteran of the pair, started to see medals in her eyes.
“I didn’t know until pretty much the last dive,” Parratto said. “Just absolutely insane. I feel like this event is always so close, so there’s always that team that’s kind of fighting to get almost a bronze. That’s kind of what my mindset was. But to come away with a silver is just mind-blowing, honestly. It just goes to show that if you stay focused and you’re confident, anything can happen.”
There was – no surprise – no catching the Chinese duo of Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi. But Parratto and Schnell brought home silver, their score of 310.80 clearly ahead of the field to secure the first ever American medal in the event.
Chen and Zhang ran away with gold with 363.78 points, a cushion of more than 50 points. They delivered the highest-scoring dive of each round and led wire to wire.
Parratto and Schnell rallied after supplying the seventh-best (out of eight) dive in each of the compulsory rounds. Sitting sixth after two dives, they moved quickly up the ranks. It was punctuated by a 78.72 on the fifth and final attempt, the highest score of any non-Chinese team on the day.
“For me, it was just taking it one dive at a time,” said Schnell, a first-time Olympian at age 22. “Every dive counts so if you miss there’s still four more dives, so you can’t let one dive get you down.”
So proud of these two for making HISTORY as the first ever medalists in the Women’s 10 Meter Synchro! Congratulations @jessicaparratto and Delaney, we hope you can hear the cheers and congratulations from back in the U.S. all the way across the ocean! #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/QHYLSyAodz
— USA Diving (@USADiving) July 27, 2021
Despite being younger, Schnell is arguably the more internationally decorated diver, with bronze medals at the 2019 World Championships in platform and 2019 Pan Am Games in synchro (with Amy Cozad). Parratto finished 10th in platform at the Rio Olympics.
Patience was a big part of the plan.
“I knew that we could do really good optionals, so I wasn’t concerned about it,” Parratto said. “I tried to keep going dive by dive, not thinking about anything else … that was in the past. That was obviously really what propelled us forward and allowed us to just focus on what was happening in the moment.”
China’s Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi won gold in the women’s 10-meter synchro Tuesday; Photo Courtesy: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
The bronze medal came down to the final dive. Japan’s pairing of Matsuri Arai and Minami Itahashi were in bronze position after four dives, but they yielded just 61.44 points from their final attempt. (All eight pairs attempted the same dive in the final round, the 5253B.)
Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito and Caeli McKay sat second after three dives, but they delivered the lowest-scoring dive of Round 4, a back three-and-a-half that netted just 51.48 points. At 3.3, it had the highest degree of difficult of the event’s 40 attempts, but the calculated risk didn’t cash in.
They tried to make up ground in Round 5, delivering the third-best dive of the round (and fifth-best of the day) at 75.84 points, but it fell .54 points shy of a medal.
“I’m in shock,” said Benfeito, who was denied a fourth career Olympic bronze medal. “As proud as I am of our team, I think it’s hard to come fourth, and especially by so little. But with the last year or even two years that we’ve had, and especially the last couple of months, I think we can be proud of what we achieved throughout the whole thing.
“We only had a handful of practices before leading up because of Caeli’s injury. And I’m extremely proud of her for pushing through. That’s something that should be known that, regardless of the outcome, she pushed through so much pain.”
That left the door open for the Mexican duo of Gabriela Agundez Garcia and Alejandra Orozco Loza, who delivered steady dives in the last three rounds. It raised them from seventh after two dives, to fifth, then fourth, then bronze.
Women’s 10-Meter Synchronized Diving
- Chen Yuxi/Jiaqi Zhang, China, 363.78
- Jessica Parratto/Delaney Schnell, United States, 310.80
- Gabriela Agundez Garcia/Alejandra Orozco Loza, Mexico, 299.70
- Meaghan Benfeito/Caeli McKay, Canada, 299.16
- Tina Punzel/Christina Wassen, Germany, 292.86
- Matsuri Arai/Minami Itahashi, Japan, 291.42
- Eden Cheng/Lois Toulson, Great Britain, 289.26
- Mun Yee Leong/Pandelela Pamg, Malaysia, 277.98