Platform, Men

Except for 1912 this event had always been won by an American at the Olympics, but in 1968 the favorite was Italian Klaus Dibiasi, the 1964 silver medalist and 1966 European Champion. Dibiasi did not disappoint, taking an early lead, holding it through qualifying, and increasing it in the final round for an easy gold medal. Dibiasi would repeat this title in 1972 and 1976 for a three-peat and was considered the greatest platform diver ever, although Greg Louganis would later challenge that assessment.

The silver medal went to Mexican diver Álvaro Gaxiola who had the support of the hometown fans. After his next-to-last dive, he was awarded 16.10 points and the Mexican fans starting booing and whistling, holding up the competition for 20 minutes with their antics. The next diver was American Keith Russell, who was in second place after eight dives, but he had to stand there and wait for the crowd to die down, and then performed his worst dive of the event, which cost him a medal. The bronze medal went to Russell’s teammate Win Young, who had won gold in this event at the 1967 Pan American Games.