Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan of the People’s Republic of China won the women’s 10m synchro event on Wednesday to give China its fourth diving gold medal in Paris and a seven-peat in the event. Jo Jin-Mi and Kim Mi-Rae took silver to give the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea its first Olympic diving medal in history. Great Britain claimed the bronze.
PARIS – What the divers lacked in consistency on Wednesday, they made up for in history.
In a repeat of the 2024 World Aquatics Championship podium, China’s Chen Yuxi, 18, and Quan Hongchan, 17, won the women’s 10m synchro event to give China its fourth gold medal in four events in Paris.
The teenage duo wasn’t as flawless as usual, but they executed the highest-scoring dive in every round to give China its seventh consecutive Olympic victory in the event – a streak that dates back to 2000, before they were born.
The gold was also China’s 50th Olympic diving medal, more than any other nation.
“We thank our predecessors for these good results so we can continue [them],” Chen said.
Silver medalists Jo Jin-Mi, 19,and Kim Mi-Rae, 23, of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea finished 43.2 points behind China to give North Korea its first Olympic diving medal in history.
“We’ll do better and achieve good result next time,” Kim said. “We did our best.”
Kim had also competed in women’s 10m synchro at the Rio 2016 Games, when she was 15, and placed fourth with a different partner. With one dive to go, they were in bronze medal position but botched their final dive. “When I couldn’t win that medal,” Kim recalled, “I was really sad. We did rigorous training, but we did not get good result.”
“Although we got the silver [today],” said her 2024 partner, Jo, “I will not be disappointed.”
In the final round on Wednesday, Great Britain’s Andrea Spendolini Sirieix, 19, and Lois Toulson, 24, eclipsed Canada’s Caeli McKay, 25, and Kate Miller, 19, to claim bronze – 11.52 points behind North Korea and 5.16 points ahead of fourth-place Canada.
“I never shook more in my life than waiting for that results to come up,” Spendolini-Sirieix said. “It ended with a medal so I couldn’t be more happy.” She and Toulson have been diving together for two years.
Since all Wednesday’s medalists performed the same dives, in the same order, with the same levels of difficulty, Chen was asked whether she and Quan planned to increase their difficulty in the future.
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Chen said, “but to make more difficult dives will be very hard. Also, for a [nearly] 19-year-old girl, it is almost not possible to have it harder. We’ll think about it.” (Chen turns 19 in September.)
Divers from Mexico, the US, Ukraine and France finished fifth through eighth place on Wednesday, respectively.
Up Next
Synchro diving concludes on Friday with the men’s 3m synchro event, before moving on to the four individual events where American Carson Tyler will be the only athlete in Paris doing the individual double, contesting both the men’s 3m and 10m events.