The sport of plunging into water, usually headfirst, with the addition of gymnastic and acrobatic stunts. Diving first appeared in the Olympic Games in 1904.
In open competition, divers use the 1 metre and 3 metre springboards and the 10 metre platform. The 1 metre springboard is not contested at the Olympic Games.
In competition, the divers perform compulsory and optional dives with each dive marked out of 10 points. The 7 judges score the dive considering all phases of the performance:
 |
Approach |
|
Take Off |
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technique and grace during flight |
|
entry into the water |
The judges are not concerned with the difficulty of the dive, as each dive has an assigned 'degree of difficulty' ranging from 1.2 to 3.5. The highest and lowest scores are scratched. The remaining five scores are totaled, multiplied by 3, divided by 5, then multiplied by the degree of difficulty.
