Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook took home the first medal for the United States at the Paris Olympics on Saturday afternoon, winning diving silver in the women’s 3m synchronised event.
Bacon and Cook finished with 314.64 points on five dives, leaving them 23.04 points adrift of China’s Yani Chang and Yiwen Chang, the first-time Olympians who entered as prohibitive favorites after winning the event at the past three world championships. It marks the sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal for China in the event since the 2004 Athens Games.
“We were really consistent Cook, a 29-year-old from the Houston suburbs who attended Stanford. “We were able to dive the way we train. It wasn’t our best performance but we didn’t miss anything, so we’re really happy with how we did. To be able to walk away with a silver medal is freaking awesome.”
The British team of Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen (302.28 points) came from behind to snatch bronze from the Australian pair of Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith, opening Team GB’s account on the medal table.
Chen and Chang finished first across the five rounds, never looking back after opening the competition with a back dive in the pike position that prompted loud cheers from the many flag-waving Chinese fans in attendance at the newly constructed Aquatics Centre in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Harper and Mew Jensen dropped to sixth after managing just 63.90 on their third dive, but scored 71.10 on their fourth to move back into touching distance of the podium. But the British pair closed in style to secure Britian’s first-ever medal in the event after a costly slip by Keeney and Smith on their difficult final dive – a two-and-a-half somersaults with one twist in pike in the final round – left the door open.
China, who have dominated Olympic diving for decades, have taken aim at a clean sweep of the programme after winning seven of eight gold medals in Tokyo three years ago. The country has taken 47 of 64 gold medals in diving, in addition to 23 silver and 10 bronze, since winning its first at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Cook and Bacon have known each other since before their teenage years, when they routinely finished one-two in national competitions. Bacon, a 27-year-old from Indianapolis, recalled Saturday watching the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics at Cook’s house.
“We just had a connection ever since we were young and it has just transferred into our synchro,” Bacon said. “We’re best friends and we enjoy doing it together.”
The American pair missed out the Tokyo Games three years ago after finishing second at the US Olympic trials at a time when Cook was battling through a “pretty gnarly shoulder injury”. But that anguish only set the stage for Saturday’s long-sought Olympic medal.
“Everything we’ve been through as individuals and as a team, injuries, heartbreak, coming so close to reaching our goals but falling short has only made this moment sweeter,” Cook said. “To be able to share it together means everything in the world.”
