Diving resumes on Wednesday with the women’s 10m synchro event. The People’s Republic of China will not only aim for its third diving gold medal in three events in Paris, but it will also vie for an Olympic seven-peat.
On Wednesday when the women complete their Paris Olympic synchro diving events on the 10m platform, expect China’s Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi to be runaway favorites. Individually, the teenage phenoms have gone 1-2 at every world championships after they grabbed the gold and silver medals on 10m platform at the Tokyo Olympics at ages 14 and 15, respectively. As partners, they have won the last three consecutive world titles in 10m synchro.
Really, the most anticipated questions will be: how many 10s will they score and how big will the point-gap be between gold and silver?
The battle for the silver and bronze promises to be compelling, too. Will the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Jo Jin-Mi and Kim Mi-Rae make the podium again after taking silver and the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in February? Can Jo and Kim once again top Andrea Spendolini Sirieix and Lois Toulson, the British pair who took 2023 silver and 2024 bronze at worlds? What about the American duo who is diving pressure-free after Delaney Schnell lured 30-year-old Jessica Parratto away from her real-world job and out of athletic retirement to compete?
All the dive lists among the top teams all carry the same degree of difficulty so the medals will be determined purely by execution and mental toughness.
If Chen and Quan win on Wednesday, it would not only add a third gold medal to China’s quest to claim all eight Olympic diving titles in Paris, but it would also give China a seventh consecutive victory (to stay undefeated) in the Olympic history of women’s 10m synchro.