Paris Olympic Diving: Despite Push from Mexican Pair, China Stays Perfect in Men’s 3-Meter Synchro

Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Paris Olympic Diving: Despite Push from Mexican Pair, China Stays Perfect in Men’s 3-Meter Synchro

For the first time at the Paris Olympic diving competition, a Chinese team showed weakness on the boards. That wasn’t enough, though, to disrupt their quest for a medals sweep in Paris.

Long Daoyi and Wang Zongyuan were the first Chinese divers to be outside of first place at the end of a round in this Olympics, but they rallied to gold with a score of 446.10 in the men’s 3-meter springboard synchro on Friday at the Paris Aquatics Centre.

It was a close battle, with less than eight points separating the three podium finishers. Juan Celaya Hernandez and Osmar Olvera Ibarra of Mexico secured silver in 444.03. Great Britain’s Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher were third with a score of 438.15 points.

Long and Wang found themselves second after the fourth round. It’s the first time in 21 rounds in Paris that a Chinese pair hasn’t been in first place in a final. The deficit was 0.24 points to the Mexican duo.

But the Chinese pair rallied with the best dive of the fifth round (85.68 points) and the best dive of the sixth round (95.76) to win the title and help China start 4-for-4 in diving golds.

“I encouraged myself,” Long said. “This competition wasn’t easy for us, and this contest was tight.”

Mexican silver medalists Juan Celaya Hernandez and Osmar Olvera Ibara; Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

The medal is Long’s first at the Olympics. Wang won silver in 3-meter men’s springboard at the Tokyo Games three years ago and paired with Xie Siyi to win gold on synchro. This pair won world titles in this event in 2023 and 2024.

Celaya and Olvera rode the roller coaster. They were fifth after two rounds and shot up to third after tying Great Britain for the best dive of the third round. They had the best dive of the fourth, getting 85.68 on their 407C to take nearly eight points from China.

Though they couldn’t keep pace late with China, a silver medal remains a massive result for the country. It’s just the third in any sport in Paris for Mexico.

“This is what we’ve been working (for) all day, all night,” Celaya said. “We’ve been sleeping, we’ve been dreaming about this moment, and being able to make it reality, being able to feel the cheer of the people, our support of the whole country behind your backs is amazing.”

Laugher and Harding were in the mix the whole way, helping Great Britain win medals in all four synchro events. They’ve already surpassed their total from each of the last two Olympics before the individual events even begin.

It’s Laugher’s fourth career Olympic medal, including gold on this event in 2016 with Chris Mears. Harding, 24, is an Olympic medalist for the first time, after silvers with Laugher at Worlds in 2022 and 2023.

“Now with four around my neck, I don’t want to start ranking each one, but for me and Anthony, our story and our journey, I’m just so proud of what we’ve done,” Laugher said. “We knew the pressure was on. Three diving events have gone so far (before ours) and we’ve had three British medals. It was just a wonderfully fun competition. It was all so close.”

Italy’s Lorenzo Marsaglia and Giovanni Tocchi were fourth, nearly 35 points off the podium. Fifth was Jules Bouyer and Alexis Jandard of France.

Americans Tyler Downs and Greg Duncan finished last in eighth. They never recovered from the worst dive of the fourth round, their 5154B yielding just 37.74 points. They scored 346.08.

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