Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan are just teenagers, but both Chinese divers were already some of the most accomplished in the world coming into the Paris Olympics. Chen won gold in the women’s synchronized 10m platform in the Tokyo Games while Quan won gold in the women’s individual platform in Tokyo, setting an Olympic record.
As great as they are separately, they were equally as great together on Wednesday in Paris, tearing up the hearts of their competition. Eighteen-year-old Chen and 17-year-old Quan were perfectly in synch as they said bye, bye, bye to the rest of the field, winning their second Olympic gold medals by 43 points in the women’s synchro platform finals.
Chen and Quan were the only divers to score more than 50 points on their first two dives, which had to have a degree of difficulty of 2.0. On the final three dives that had no limit on the difficulty, they scored at least 80 points each time off the board. No one else in the field had a dive score better than 80 all day.
Jo Jin Mi and Kim Mi Rae, of North Korea, finished second thanks to a final dive, a back 2 1/2 with 1 1/2 twists, that scored 77.76 points. Great Britain’s Andrea Spendolini and Lois Toulson did the same dive and received the exact same score, but scores of 60.3 and 69.12 in the third and fourth rounds put the British duo in third place.
Jo and Kim’s silver was the first ever Olympic diving medal for North Korea. The bronze was Great Britain’s second diving medal in Paris. Tom Daley and Noah Williams won silver in the men’s synchro platform on Monday.
American duo Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell came to Paris with high hopes after winning silver in Tokyo three years ago. But it was a disappointing day for the U.S. divers, who only had one dive score 70 points. They were in eighth place after each of the first and second rounds, moved up to third after Round 4, and finished the day sixth with a final score of 287.52.
Canada’s Caeli McKay and Kate Miller (299.22) finished fourth, and Mexico’s Gabriela Agundez Garcia and Alejandra Orozco Loza (297.66) finished fifth. Ukraine’s Kseniia Bailo and Sofiia Lyskun (285.00) and Frace’s Jade Gillet and Emily Hallifax (234.84) finished seventh and eighth.
Chen and Quan’s gold is the third for China in the Paris Games, and 50th for the country all-time, officially passing the U.S. for the most all-time Olympic diving gold medals. China came to Paris having won seven gold medals in each of the last two Olympics. No country has ever swept all eight diving events in a single Olympics, but if anyone can do it, it’s gonna be China.
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