Platform, Men

Men’s platform closed the 2008 Olympic diving program and to date the score read – China 7, Everybody Else 0. But this event was considered somewhat open as the 2007 World Championships had been won by Russian Gleb Galperin and the 2008 World Cup went to German Sascha Klein. China’s Zhou Luxin had been second at both events and was their top hope in Beijing on platform. And the winner was – none of the above.

The gold went to Australian Matt Mitcham, who had previously competed internationally at the senior level only at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, where he failed to medal. Going into the final round, Mitcham trailed Zhou by 32.50 points. He chose for his final dive a back 2½ sommie with 2½ twists, piked, with a huge degree of difficulty – 3.8. And he nailed it – getting four 10s, two 9.5s, and a single 9.0, to score 112.10, the highest scoring dive in Olympic history, which moved him 3.2 points ahead of Zhou, who won silver, while the bronze went to Galperin.

This was Australia’s first Olympic diving gold since Richmond Eve in 1924. Mitcham had started in sports on the trampoline. David Wallechinsky has noted in The Complete Book of the Olympics that Mitcham “was one of only 10 openly gay athletes to compete at the Beijing Olympics and the only openly gay male.”