Diving World Cup - Montreal 2024: China undefeated

Not only was China undefeated for the third day in a row in Montreal, but all four of Sunday’s winners were three-time world champions: Chang Yani & Chen Yiwen in women’s synchro 3m, Lian Junjie & Yang Hao in men’s synchro 10m, Wang Zongyuan in men’s 3m, and Chen Yuxi in women’s 10m. Here’s how the action unfolded – in chronological order.

Women’s 3m Synchro

The women’s 3m synchro final had seven teams in the field, each completing five dives.

Three-time world champions Chang Yani, 23, and Chen Yiwen, 24, of China breezed to the gold medal. There were no perfect scores in their 329.40 total, but they beat the runners-up from the USA by 16.80 points.

Silver medalist from the USA, Sarah Bacon, 27, made her second podium in two days. Less than 24 hours after taking silver in the individual 3m event, she paired with Kassidy Cook, 27, for the synchro event.

Cook said that since the pair were first in the dive order, “we went into it [knowing] that we were going to set the pace. We didn’t want to feel rushed so we made sure we took our time, took our deep breaths and got up on that board when we felt ready. I think we set the pace pretty well.” The duo from the USA scored 312.60 points, 15 more than the bronze medalists from Australia: Maddison Keeney, 27, and Anabelle Smith, 31. 

Speaking about the competition, Keeney said; “I really liked the quick competition. You’re not sitting there in your thoughts for a long time.”

After the World Cup in Montreal, teams will be looking ahead to Olympic trials in June, where Smith from Australia will try to make her fourth Olympic team. “Each cycle of the Olympics has been so different,” she explained. “I feel like I’ve lived four different lives. Now I’m diving the best that I ever have, and coming back from my [right Achilles] injury, this is like bonus time. I feel very lucky to still be diving, very lucky to still be next to Maddie. We’ve been going for 10 years now – so it’s exciting and less pressure as well.”

Men’s 10m Synchro   

Next, China’s Lian Junjie, 23, and Yang Hao, 26, won the men’s 10m synchro contest with 457.23 points, to give China its seventh gold medal in seven events. They earned four perfect 10s on an inward pike dive, one of their required “easy” dives in round two where the degree of difficulty is capped.

When asked where they keep their medals, Yang said: “I put them in my home.” But Lian said, “I put the gold medals in my heart.”

The runners-up from Mexico’s Kevin Berlin Reyes, 22, and Randal Willars Valdez, 21, finished 28.26 points behind China but it wasn’t until round four (of six) that they entered medal range – and stayed there with a slightly more difficult dive list than the other 10 pairs. It was Willars Valdez’s second silver in Montreal after coming just 2.10 points away from gold against Yang Hao in the individual 10m event on Saturday night.

Remarkably, the duo from Mexico only started competing together in 10m synchro at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships – Fukuoka, where they earned the bronze medal.

Great Britain’s Tom Daley, 29, and Noah Williams, 23, took the bronze, just one month after claiming World Championship silver.

Speaking on their bronze medal win, Daley claimed; “Our training beforehand was amazing but in competition, sometimes things don’t quite fall into place. We’re also a new pair – this is our second international event – so there are lots of little things we want to work on. Definitely, we feel like we should be challenging for silver and gold, but for right now, to dive – by far not our best – and come away with bronze is still pretty solid.”

Men’s 3m

In the third event of the day, three-time world champion Wang Zongyuan, 22, won the men’s 3m event by 36.75 points over Osmar Olvera Ibarra,19, of Mexico who, in turn, overtook Jack Laugher, 29, of Great Britain on the final dive to take silver. Laugher, a three-time world championship bronze medalist in 3m, placed third.

All three medalists cleared 500 points. Wang’s 549.50 total was just 12.7 points off his personal best in international competition. “I’m very happy,” Wang said. “I always have confidence before each dive.”

China’s other finalist, Zheng Jiuyuan ,19, had a tough third round, scoring 50.75 points on his reverse 3½ (with 3.5DD), dashing his medal hopes, but he worked his way up from seventh place to finish fourth. Thirty-six year old Li Shixin, (who dove for China earlier in his career) placed fifth for Australia.

Wang spoke of his admiration for Li’s career. “Li Shin is awesome,” he said. ‘We need to learn from Li Shixin.” Asked if he could foresee himself competing at 36, Wang laughed and said, “It’s hard to say. Many things can happen in the future. But yeah, in my dreams, I think I will try to compete as long as possible.”

Silver medalist Olvera Ibarra said he was pleased with his point total (512.75) and expressed his determination to take the gold medal from China. “I’ll keep working and I think in the next event, I will be closer to them,” he said.

Discussing his bronze medal, Laugher exclaimed; “Wang Zongyuan is always very consistent. He’s very, very difficult to beat”. “But it’s really enjoyable to dive in a final against Osmar. He’s 10 years younger than I am and we were beating each other in each round. It was really really good fun having that battle".

Laugher added, “I’m really happy to go home with 500 [points] again and still know there’s more in the tank. I’m really proud of myself and I enjoyed that performance.”

Women’s 10m

The competition closed with the women’s 10m final. Even though 18-year-old Chen Yuxi of China led after each of the five dives, competition was tighter for second and third place. In the end, the reigning Olympic and world champion Quan Hongchan, 16, of China clinched silver with an emphatic back 2½ with 1½ twists pike that snared three perfect 10s and scored 92.80 points, bringing her total to 411.45 (just 3.9 points behind Chen).

Similarly, 19-year-old Andrea Spendolini Sirieix of Great Britain did the same dive to get on the podium. Her total of 384.70 points secured her the bronze, 1.6 points ahead of Caeli McKay of Canada, who placed fourth.

Spendolini Sirieix said the key to the bronze, for her, was to “just remain humble in every dive. Once you throw a little bit of concentration off and get a little bit distracted, things can go wrong. I told myself going into the last round I wanted a PB [personal best]. I didn’t necessarily care about the medal, I just wanted to be myself. And I did.

"Bible scriptures really helped me maintain humility and peace throughout the competition,” she said. “Sometimes [the verse] changes up, but this time, [Matthew 6:33] was the only one that I needed to keep me calm.”

By the end of the weekend, five nations claimed all the medals at the 2024 Diving World Cup opener in Montreal: China (9 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze); Great Britain and Mexico (3 silver, 2 bronze each); Australia (3 bronze), and the USA (2 silver).

Later this month, many of these divers will gather in Berlin, Germany, for the second stop of the Diving World Cup (21-24 March) in their quest to qualify for the World Cup Super Final in Xi’an, China, 19-21 April.