In addition to that, the sport is practiced on platforms that are either 10 meters or 5 meters high, or on flexible boards that are 1 or 3 meters high.
Diving is not something easily picked up. To practice the sport it is necessary a lot of practice, and courage to jump from such high places.
Nonetheless, that is what makes the sport interesting and exciting. There are actually two different countries that are considered responsible for the beginnings of diving, they are Sweden and Germany, with a little help from the English. Both Germany and Sweden gymnasts practiced by jumping into a pool and executing their acrobatics mid air, in what sounds very similar to modern diving.
Sometime around the 19th century, Swedish gymnasts in an excursion to Great Britain showcased their method to the English, who really liked it. Diving was already turning into a sport of its own in both countries, but its presence in England, really helped boost the participation and popularity of diving. The country already had competitions before the Swedish visited.
Except that it wasn't really the modern diving; although athletes would indeed dive into the pool, but stunts would not be performed, and competitors would simply dive into the water, as simple as it sounds. Although the old English dive does sound dull, it was its previous existence in the country with the German and Swedish innovation that created the beautiful and plastic sport that diving is today. It can be said that diving was established in the 's, as it was around that time that gymnasts in Sweden and Germany started practicing it, and that "diving"competitions became popular in England.
In Germany, the first set of rules were written and adopted in Shortly after, the sport's first organization was founded, the Amateur Diving, in All that propelled the sport to become an Olympic event, a landmark in any sports history. From that point on, the sport only evolved, with more and more governing bodies and associations being founded across the globe. Diving really evolved and became the sport as we know it today once it arrived in Great Britain, late in the 's.
In the Antwerp, Belgium Olympics, women first competed on three meter, and American ladies swept the podium! Never mind that there were only four women competing, and they were all from the United States. British Swimming talks about how diving meets were far from orderly back in the day. Dives were divided into two categories— plain and fancy. Athletes could choose whether to run off the boards, or start from standing, if they wanted to take off of one foot or two, and whether they would use their hands in their entry or not.
The Olympic diving event remained relatively unchanged from until when synchronized diving found its place on the global stage. Rome was the first Olympics to use all Duraflex aluminum springboards. The first Duraflex was made out of an aircraft wing panel by Raymond Rude. There have been vast improvements in technology applied to the boards, and the Duraflex board remains the diving board of choice for every Olympics and international competition since.
The United States has historically dominated diving. The American men have won 16 out of the 26 Olympic golds on springboard, and 12 out of 26 on platform. The women have taken home 12 of 22 springboard golds and 8 of 23 on platform. Americans Pat McCormick and Greg Louganis are the only people to have brought home the gold on both platform and springboard from two consecutive Olympics.
The discovery of the "Tomba Del Tuffatore" The Tomb of the Diver shows us that the excitement and grace of diving from high places into water has lured people from at least BC - the date established for the construction of the tomb. As with most sports dating back to ancient times, little information on competitive diving has survived. It was a traditional speciality of the guild of salt boilers, called Halloren to practise certain swimming and diving skills.
The Halloren used to perform a series of diving feats from a bridge into the River Saale. In in contact with the German gymnastics movement the world's first diving association was formed. Most of its members were gymnasts starting their tumbling routines as a kind of water gymnastic. Thus diving became very popular in Germany. In Sweden wooden scaffolding was erected around many lakes, inviting courageous fellows to perform diving feats.
Somersaulting from great heights and swallow-like flights of a whole team are common. The beginning of competitive diving corresponded to the rise of swimming clubs and associations. In Germany, the oldest club called "Neptun" started international diving contests from a lower board and from a tower in In the first diving rules were adopted and the following year the first tables were published in Germany.
At the turn of the century, another branch of diving found numerous followers in the USA - the bridge and artistic leaping. However, its development was stopped due to the high number of serious accidents. In in Saint-Louis, with the support of the Germans, diving was added to the Olympic programme. German divers dominated the springboard scene during the first two decades.
When high diving from a platform was introduced in , the Swedish athletes dominated these contests. For the Games in London, a diving table was composed listing the types of dive allowed, giving descriptions of them and setting a difficulty value for each and fixing the number of required and voluntary dives. The table contained 14 dives for highboard and 20 for springboard. Recommendations for judging were also given.
Constant changes came about until the FINA meeting in in Budapest where the German proposals for springboard and the Swedish proposals for highboard diving were adopted as internationally binding rules. German diving placed particular emphasis on the good body position during flight whereas the Swedish set a high value on the courageous aspect of the dive and the splashless arrival in the water. In , the Amateur Diving Association of England, the first ever diving association, was formed and continued until when it came under the aegis of the ASA of Great Britain.
From , US divers asserted their supremacy for several decades. Two great coaches can be credited for most of these victories - Ernst Brandsten, and outstanding Swedish diver at the Olympic Games and Fred Cady.
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