SAINT-DENIS, France —
Over the past two years, Osmar Olvera has never tired of proclaiming that the Chinese are not invincible in diving.
On Friday, together with Juan Celaya, he came close to proving his theory.
The Mexican duo won the first silver medal in the three-meter synchronized diving in the history of their country, and gave the delegation its third medal at the Paris Olympic Games.
Olvera and Celaya totaled 444.03 points to finish behind the Chinese Long Daoyi and Wang Zongyuan, who took the gold with 446.10, in a close race that was decided in the final dive at the Saint-Denis Aquatic Centre.
“They are not invincible, we have both been saying it, they do not come to compete alone,” said Olvera, the most talented diver on the Mexican team. “We took the lead in the fourth and I think they trembled. For me, we won.”
After their final performance, the Chinese couple hugged each other at the side of the pool, but could not celebrate until the Mexicans jumped in and the results that gave them the gold appeared on the screen.
It was a rare scene in a sport that China has dominated in recent years. At Tokyo 2020, Great Britain avoided being swept aside in all eight events in the synchronised 10-metre platform.
Britons Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher settled for bronze with a total score of 438.15.
“It was exciting and difficult,” Wang said. “It was the first time we had to deal with these challenges. We had to make adjustments in the middle of the competition.”
With Friday’s victory, China now has four gold medals in as many events in Paris, although it was the first time that it has seen its top spot in jeopardy.
The Chinese are looking for their first sweep since so many Olympic events have been held.
Olvera and Celaya live in Mexico City, where they train under China’s Ma Jin, who also coached Paola Espinosa and Alejandra Orozco when they won silver in the 10-meter synchronized platform at London 2012.
“I remember in 2012, watching the Olympics, when Mexicans won medals in diving and I said, ‘I want to do it too.’ Today I can tell children to be motivated and dream big because dreams do come true,” said Olvera.
The pair’s silver medal is the 16th Olympic medal in this discipline for the Mexicans and confirms them as the leading provider of medals. In the diving pits, Mexico has collected medals uninterruptedly since Beijing 2008, but this is the first in the three-meter synchronized event.
“I knew it was going to be historic and that it was going to be the first, these are emotions I can’t describe,” Olvera added.
Prior to this silver medal, Mexico had opened its medal tally with a silver medal for Prisca Awiti in judo and a bronze in women’s team archery.
Olvera, who won silver in the three-meter individual event at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2023 and bronze at the World Championships in Doha this year, will seek to add another medal on her own.
“There have been ups and downs, but we are happy with the performance, that is what we are concentrating on and at the end of the day we have our medals, but we are hungry for more,” said Celaya, who will also participate in the individual event.
Supported by the noisy Mexican fans who gathered at the Aquatic Center, Olvera and Celaya showed from the start that they were ready to take the medal.
After the first round, they were tied for third place and only got off the podium in the second round, when they dropped to fifth position. They came back in the third round with a solid performance.
Olvera and Celaya took advantage of the Chinese’s hesitations in their third and fourth executions to climb to first place with less than a point advantage over the Asians, who closed strongly in the last to secure the gold.
Although there was an obvious mistake by one of the members in the fourth jump of the Chinese, some judges gave failing grades and others gave them scores that bordered on excellence.
“We worked hard for this moment, we would have liked to be higher, but at the end of the day it is a sport of appreciation and we cannot control it. What we can control is what we work on,” Celaya said.
Mexico, with the most difficult dive in the event, a 3.9 with two front somersaults, landed its sixth and secured the medal.
“When we were up there I thought that we could do it, that we were born for this and that we were going to achieve it,” Olvera added. “We stayed close and they trembled, they really trembled.”
