Springboard, Men

The Americans swept the medals in the springboard event. Bud Pinkston had won the 1920 AAU title over Louis Kuehn, but Kuehn defeated him in Antwerp. Kuehn’s biggest previous victory was at the 1919 AAU Junior Championships. In the 1920 springboard event, the divers had to perform compulsory and optional dives from both the one- and three-metre springboards. In addition, the divers were required to perform two dives drawn by lot, which were surprise dives disclosed to the contestants just before the competition so that they had no time to practice them. There were six compulsory dives, four voluntary dives, and two drawn dives. The required dives were as follows: #6 - forward dive, hand on sides on entry, header forward, running takeoff; #13 - back dive with half-twist; #26 - forward running 1½ pike; #34 - inward somersault pike; #37 - reverse dive, layout position, standing takeoff, hands on side at entry (also known as an Auerbach or Isander); #46 - reverse dive, pike position, hands on side at entry. The voluntary dives had to be four dives from four different groups, with all ranging degree of difficulty from 1.7-2.0.