En route to winning four gold medals at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup in Montreal on Saturday, the People’s Republic of China was so dominant that its margins of victory ranged from 45.06 points (in women’s 10m synchro) to 19.74 points (in men’s 3m synchro).

And not only did China win both synchro events, but it also went 1-2 in both the women’s individual 3m and men’s individual 10m.

For analysis and athlete reaction, read on. 

Men’s 3m synchro

China’s first medal of the day came in men’s 3m synchro, and the entire podium was an exact replica of the one at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. The same faces took the same places as Mexico claimed silver and Great Britain captured bronze.

The difference was that Wang Zongyuan, 24, and Zheng Jiuyuan, 21, had replaced their third dive with a harder version and put it at the end of their list. In Montreal, they did a triple-twisting forward 2½ with 3.9DD (as opposed to the double twisting forward 2½ with 3.4DD they did in Singapore.) Their new dive earned the highest score of the contest (98.28 points) to push their winning tally to 461.37 points.

Asked what it would take to beat China in this event, Wang said, “I think everyone's on the same level. We all start at zero. We all practice 100% during practice. I think if everyone did their best, then there's nothing really specific about beating each other in this event.”

Osmar Olvera Ibarra, 21, and Juan Manuel Celaya Hernandez, 27, finished 19.74 points behind China to give Mexico the silver, and fans went crazy.

Olvera Ibarra’s mother and father were in the stands. He explained that one of his father’s friends has a radio channel in Montreal. “He announced: ‘Hey, all Mexicans in Montreal, come to the pool and support the Mexican diving team.’ And they, they come! It’s phenomenal to feel the support when we are on the board,” said Olvera Ibarra.

Bronze medalists Jack Laugher, 31, and Anthony Harding, 25, of Great Britain were trailing Canada by 1.17 points with one dive to go but ultimately knocked Paul Carson and Nathan Zsombor-Murray off the podium by 4.11 points. Remarkably, Laugher had only been training for about two weeks, explaining that he had to take a six-week break to allow two bruised bones in his left wrist to heal.

The bronze marked Laugher’s 53^rd World Aquatics medal. “They're all hung up at home,” he said. “I've got some really nice metal bars that I put them on. I cherish every one that I get.” Amazed that the weight doesn’t pull down the wall, he quipped, “I think I need some good drywall anchors, right?”

Women’s 10m synchro

In the second final on Saturday, China paired Zhang Minjie, 21, with Lu Wei, 20, to dominate the women’s 10m synchro event. They led after each of the five rounds and no one came come within 45 points of their 349.98 total. Even though the two women are nearly the same age, Zhang was a 2025 world champion in this event and Lu was the 2019 world champion at just 13 years old. They began diving together late last year.

Afterwards, the Beijing-based duo admitted: “Basically we don't have anything in common. It's just that we practice a lot together and communicate. That's why we can work well together.”

Jo Jin Mi, 21, and Kim Mi Hwa, 23, took silver for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in just their second year as a pair. Last year, the pair took bronze at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships. They train six hours a day and attend school for two or three hours daily in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang.

Ontario natives Katelyn Fung and Kate Miller claimed the bronze for Canada, less than eight points out of silver-medal position. Fung said the secret to their partnership was their friendship. “I trust her. I know that she trusts me. Honestly, that's what helps us,” she said.

Women’s 3m

In the women’s 3m final, three-time world champion and reigning Olympic gold medalist, Chen Yiwen, 26, led each of the five rounds to seize gold with 375.90 points – topping her runner-up teammate Chen Jia, 21, by 13.35 points. Both Chinese divers did the same dives, in a different order.

Chen Yiwen admitted last year that she had lost some motivation after the Paris Olympics but said that the lack of a major championship in 2026 has been helpful so far.

"It’s a more calm situation. In championship years, I’m feeling pushed all the time to be following the rhythm of the training.”

Runner-up Chen Jia, said she was proud of her “ability to adapt and be flexible” on Saturday and said that since last year, she’s “gotten more used to training seven to eight hours per day.”

Alysha Koloi took bronze for Australia. Koloi, the 2024 world champion on 1m, said that 3m “is a different head space. Because [3-meter] is an Olympic event, we all take it a little bit more seriously. One meter is fun and exciting, but 3-meter's where we want to try and get the medals.”

In a memorable moment, Koloi’s teammate, Maddison Keeney, 29, received a 2-point penalty for balking and restarting her forward 3½ pike in the penultimate round. While the deduction and dive score dropped Keeney from third position into fourth, she was still within medal contention – trailing Koloi by 3.35 points – with the hardest dive of the contest remaining: a double-twisting 2½ pike, with 3.4 DD. In the end, Keeney placed fourth, 3.95 points shy of tying Koloi.

Afterwards, Koloi said she didn’t see Keeney’s balk. “I had no idea,” she said. “I don't watch anyone. I ignore everything and focus on my dives.” The first time she sensed something unusual happened with Keeney was during the last round, when the top-three divers were asked to stand in front of a banner with their potential medals depicted behind them.  “When they didn't ask me to move [over] for Maddie, I was really surprised,” Koloi said, “So that's when I found out.”

Men’s 10m

The first round in the men’s 10m event set the tone for an absolute smackdown. Benjamin Tessier, 20, of Canada scored all 9.0s for his inward 3½. Next, China’s Bai Yuming, 19, got all 9.0s for his back 2½ with 1½ twists pike. Then the top-qualifer Lian Junjie, 25, scored six (of seven possible) 9.5s for his inward 3½.

After that, however, consistency became a struggle for almost everyone except Bai, who won his first individual international gold medal with 543.55 points. Even runner-up Lian had a relatively low scoring penultimate dive that ranked 10^th in that round (but he still finished 10.80 points behind his teammate). The only other diver for whom consistency wasn’t a major issue was two-time world champion Cassiel Rousseau, 25, of Australia who had a lock on third place for five of the last six rounds.

Afterwards, first-time winner Bai said:

To repeat victory in the future, he said he would need to “refine the details even further. It's like nitpicking.”

Lian said that even though he took silver, there are four or five other men in China who could step in on 10m at any moment. One of them, 14-year-old Zhao Renjie, placed third in 10m qualifying in Montreal – beating all other finalists on Saturday except Bai and Lian, but Zhao wasn’t allowed to compete in the final due to a two-athletes-per-country maximum.

As for Rousseau, he said not much had changed since he won his second World Championship title on 10m last summer. He’s still studying psychology as a third-year student at Griffith University, and he had just come back from a snowboarding holiday in Japan about three or four weeks earlier. “It was so nice, much needed,” he said. Placing third “definitely exceeded [expectations],” he added. “Having [re-]learned my dives three, four weeks ago, I didn't expect them to be this good this early on. That just goes to show how good of a team and support system I have.”

Next

The last four gold medals of the Montreal World Cup will be awarded on Sunday, starting at 10:00 local time in women’s 3m synchro, followed by men’s 10m synchro at 12:30 and the women’s 10m final at 16:30. The event will close with the men’s 3m individual final at 19:30, featuring world champion Osmar Olvera Ibarra of Mexico and China’s two-time Olympic silver medalist Wang Zongyuan.