Diving at the 2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 diving events were contested at the Beijing Olympic Aquatics Centre, better known as the Water Cube. This was also the site of swimming and synchronized swimming in 2008. Once again there were eight diving events on the Olympic Program, with four for men and women, with both individual and synchronized events on springboard and platform. Australia’s Matt Mitcham won the gold on men’s platform, but the other seven events were won by Chinese divers, who were now as dominant as the United States had been from 1920-84. They won 11 of 24 medals, although since only one duo per nation may compete in synchronized events, and only two per nation in individual events, China actually won 11 of a possible 12 medals. The only change in format was that the men’s synchronized events were increased to six dives, instead of five, while women continued with only five. There was a change in scoring in 2008, however. From 1996-2004, qualifying round scores carried over to the semi-finals and semi-final scores carried over to the final round. But in 2008, each round started anew, with no scores carried over.