'Dream Team' looks to spring back after losing the 10m platform

Bronze medalist and home-turf sweetheart Thomas Daley appeared even happier than the cheering crowds when American David Boudia upset Chinese favorite Qiu Bo to grab the Olympic men's 10m platform title on Saturday.

Qiu buried his head in his arms, weeping, while his teammates and coaches silently walked out of the stadium with lowered heads.

The glory of Chinese diving's "Dream Team" faded at the London Games.

The scene also indicated things might get even worse for Chinese diving in the future.

"The world is now slowly catching up with China, and it's exciting see me and Tom take gold and bronze," said Boudia, who - along with Russian winner Ilya Zakharov - medaled in the men's 3m springboard, ruining China's ambition to sweep all eight gold.

"This was exactly our original plan going in. You just put hard training into the competition. There is no special pill. There is no magic formula. You do not need a Chinese coach to win a medal. We show what hard work we do, and what the US and the rest of world can do."

Boudia's coach Adam Soldati is a five-time Big-10 Conference diving coach of the year and an NCAA diving coach of the year.

The student at Purdue University in Indiana said the men's 10m platform is very competitive now. He said he hoped the rest of the world will rise to challenge Chinese domination in all diving events.

British diving team performance director Alexey Evangulov said the better other divers do, the more nervous the Chinese will become.

"China didn't show their best. Why? They are not used to competing with someone who dives better than them. They've gotten used to being the best," Evangulov said.

After five rounds and some of the world's most difficult dives in Saturday's final, including the front four-and-a-half somersaults, Daley led with 466.20 points and one round to go.

Qiu and Boudia were joint-second by the tiniest of margins, just 0.15 point behind Daley.

In an edge-of-the seat final round, it was the oldest of the three divers, 23-year-old Boudia, who produced a nearly faultless back two-and-a-half somersaults with two-and-a-half twists in the pike position to score 102.60 points for gold.

Although 19-year-old Qiu, who beat Boudia to take gold at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, responded with 100.80 for the same dive, it was not enough.

The US celebrated its first gold in the 10m platform since Greg Louganis - one of the greatest divers of all time - won in 1988.

Boudia's thrilling victory and Daley's sensational influence on the sport are bound to inspire their countries' youth.

Alexey, who criticized Daley for too many media commitments and social activities before the Olympics, believed the sport will enjoy a brighter future in Britain, thanks to "Daley-mania".

"This sport in Britain deserves to be one of the famous sports," Alexey said.

"Thanks to Tom, we are in a very good position. We have good and new junior generations now. We won (over the) Russians, Ukrainians and Germans in the European Championship. It shows we have very good generation for Rio and beyond."

China reflecting

London is the second Olympics in a row where China failed to win the men's 10m platform.

In the 2008 Beijing Games, Australian Matthew Mitcham won the event with his final dive, denying the Chinese a clean sweep of all eight medals in their home Olympics.

Qiu admitted his tense body and mind cost the gold at his Olympic debut.

"On the fifth dive, I finished on the same score as the American (Boudia), and then we had exactly the same dive in the final round," he explained.

"I was very nervous. I have competed so many times but have never experienced that much nervousness. I think the judges have been really fair. They aren't against China."

China sent two competitors to the event. But Lin Yue finished a disappointing sixth.

However, Qiu is determined to revitalize Chinese diving.

"Chinese diving dominance is the result of everyone's contributions," he said. "Even though I didn't get gold today, it doesn't mean we'll never get another one. I believe we're strong enough to take it back."

China's diving team chief Zhou Jihong regarded the losses as tough lessons and vowed to come back stronger.

"This is a lesson that hurt us a lot," Zhou said.

"But we can learn from it. We were too optimistic about our strength in the sport and also confident that victory was just within reach. The rise of strong rivals will push us to work harder and motivate our athletes to grow stronger mentally."

chenxiangfeng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/13/2012 page10)