History of Diving

There is little historical data on the sport of diving prior to the first modern-day diving competition held in England around 1880. While swimming and diving are commonly linked, contemporary diving has more similarities with gymnastics. In the early 1800s, Swedish and German gymnasts practiced their somersaults and twists over water. Their practices became known as "Fancy Diving", a term that stuck until the early 1900s.

Diving has been an Olympic event, for men, since 1904 and for women, since 1912. The 1908 Olympics in London included a full competition in "Fancy Diving" from both platform and "elastic board". Women's "Plain Diving" was added in the 1912 Olympics and "Spring-board" in 1920.

1920 Olympic Diving Tower, Antwerp.

When diving debuted at the 1904 Olympics, one of the two events was a plunge for distance, the goal being to swim the furthest underwater after a dive. The event was dropped immediately because it was not well received by the audience - not really a spectator sport. At the 1908 Games in London, the pool was 100 metres long and the diving tower was removable. In 1908, springboard diving was added to the original platform diving event. At the 1912 Stockholm Games "Fancy High Diving" was introduced and it was the first time women were allowed to compete in their own platform event. Women had a springboard event beginning in 1920. The first concrete diving tower was built in 1924 at the Tourelles Swimming Pool in Paris.

In the 1920s, divers grew tired of the slow rotation from rigid take-offs starting with a straight position. They became fancier as the pike and tuck positions began to dominate, making multiple somersaults possible. Around that time the United States began to dominate diving, replacing Sweden and Germany. In 1924, the United States won all but the bronze in the women's platform dive. In 1932, American divers occupied every space on the podium in both the men's and women's events.

Diving Equipment

The springboard is a flexible board used in the 3-metre events and is at least 4.8 metres long and 0.5 metres wide, with a non-slip surface.

The platform is used in the 10-metre events. This unbending board must be at least 6 metres long and 2 metres wide, with a non-slip surface. The front of the platform is at least 1.5 metres over and is 10 metres above the water.

The pool must be at least 4.5 metres deep, but 5 metres is preferred in competition.


Diving Today

Today, diving is one of the world's most popular sports. Thousands of people dive every day in some form in almost all of the world's countries. Hundreds of pools across Canada and the United States have diving clubs or school teams. In China, diving ranks as the most practiced sport next to riding bicycles and draws more spectators than any other activity. Many Chinese divers actually go to Diving school when they are very young, where training and study are of equal importance. In the Olympic games, diving is always one of the most popular events for its excitement, beauty and drama.

Amateur diving is the organized sport which athletes compete in at swimming pools around the world. There are many types of amateur competitions; some at local pools, some city or state championships, some are university meets, many are invitational meets, and the most prestigious are championships at the national and international level. The three most important international diving championships are the Olympic Games, the World Swimming and Diving Championships and the World Cup of Diving.

As with all amateur aquatic sports, the rules for diving are defined and governed by FINA. Each year FINA oversees the diving Grand Prix Circuit. This is a group of diving competitions hosted in many different countries around the world. Divers compete representing their country and vie for standings in the world rankings.

In Amateur competitions (or meets), divers compete always against members of their same sex. There are junior competitions where age is taken into considerations, and senior competitions which are open to all age groups. In most cases divers all perform a list of dives. These lists are made up of easier dives called compulsories, and harder dives called optional dives. The group of compulsory dives has a limit of combined difficulty and must cover all groups of dives. The optional dives must also cover all groups of dives, but has no difficulty limit. Some competitions only have optional dives.