Athens, 16 August 2004, Games of the XXVIII Olympiad. Thomas BIMIS (R) and Nikolaos SIRANIDIS of Greece pose with their gold medals for the men's synchronised diving springboard event at the Olympic Aquatic Centre. Credit : Getty Images/Daniel Berehulak

Born: 11 June 1975

Birthplace: Athens, Greece

Nationality: Greek

Sport: Aquatics

ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Sydney 2000

Athens 2004

AWARDS

Olympic medals:

Gold: 1

Diving Upset

Diver Thomas Bimis first competed in the Olympics in 2000, placing 32nd in the springboard event. Four years later, when the Olympics came to his hometown of Athens, Bimis teamed with fellow Athenian Nikolaos Siranidis in the synchronized springboard diving event.

They had already competed together and won a bronze medal in the Grand Prix in Madrid 2003 and had taken the fifth place of the World Cup event held in Athens in 2004. At the Athens Games the contest took place late at night on the third day of competition and Greece had yet to win a gold medal.

Bimis and Siranidis took the early lead, but fell back to fifth place and were still placed only fourth with one dive to go. However, the favourites all blew their final dives, while Bimis and Siranidis, performing inward 3½ somersault tucks, responded to the support of the crowd by hitting their dives with near-perfection. They won the competition by 3.33 points.