Springboard, Women

Fu Mingxia was the defending gold medalist, but she had briefly retired after the 1996 Olympics, only to return in 1998. She had been beaten all year by her teammate Guo Jingjing, but Guo was still fearful of Fu, who had also won Olympic platform gold in 1992 and 1996. A few days before the start of this event the two competed together and won silver in the synchro springboard. Guo led the early going in the final, but Fu came on strongly with the best dive in each of the final three rounds to win her fourth Olympic gold medal. Guo would come back and win this springboard and synchro springboard in both 2004 and 2008, and retire after the Beijing Olympics with six Olympic medals, four of them gold, the most ever by any female in Olympic diving.

The bronze medal went to little-known German Dörte Lindner, who had attended college in the US at Southern Cal, and whose major international podium appearance prior to Sydney was winning a silver on 1-metre springboard at the 1995 European Championships. She edged out Yuliya Pakhalina (RUS), who had been the 1998 World Champion on springboard.