Team GB Clinches First Medal at 2024 Olympics with Bronze in Women's 3m Synchronized Springboard

Team GB's first medal at the 2024 Olympic Games was secured in the women's 3m synchronised springboard diving event. Divers Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen delivered an impressive performance to clinch the bronze medal on the opening day of the Olympics in Paris. 

The women's 3m synchronised springboard event is a diving competition where pairs of athletes perform dives simultaneously, aiming for perfect synchronisation and execution. The dives are judged based on factors such as the degree of difficulty, execution, and synchronization between the two divers.  

Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen entered the competition as strong contenders, having trained rigorously in the lead-up to the Games. Their journey to the podium was marked by a series of well-executed dives that displayed their coordination, precision, and athletic prowess. 

The pair were second after the opening round of dives but slipped down the standings after small errors in their next two efforts. This left them in sixth place with two dives to go. However, a strong fourth dive moved the British pair back into contention. 

Harper and Mew Jensen followed their score of 71.10 with 70.68 on their final dive, which moved them into third place. Australia seemed set for bronze at worst, but a mistake on their final dive, greeted by gasps from the crowd at the Paris Aquatics Centre, meant they failed to surpass Harper and Mew Jensen. 

 Londoner Scarlett Mew Jensen, competing in her second Olympics, had sustained a partial fracture in her back just three months ago, limiting her to just a month’s preparation. Despite this setback, her stunned expression soon turned to tears of joy after the Australian error secured their bronze medal. 

Their achievement marked Britain’s first female diving medal at an Olympics in 64 years. The last time Team GB won a female diving medal was in 1960, when Liz Ferris secured a medal. 

Gold for world champions Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen was rarely in doubt, as they delivered an impressive performance to secure a sixth consecutive gold for China in this event. America's Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook took silver. 

Peter Waterfield and Leon Taylor, who won Great Britain's last medal on the opening day of an Olympics in 2004, were part of the BBC commentary team in Paris. "Right place, right time," Taylor said of the British medal. "That's what happens in diving. What an incredible competition." 

Harper and Mew Jensen had won bronze and silver medals at the World Championships in recent years, but this was not one of the 63 medals Team GB was predicted to win in Paris. Their success will likely inspire a new generation of divers in Great Britain, highlighting the strength of Team GB's diving program and underscoring the importance of teamwork and perseverance in achieving Olympic success. 

The diving events continue Monday when Tom Daley will compete at his fifth Olympics alongside Noah Williams in the 10m synchronised event, in which they are among the favourites. Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson are expected to be in medal contention in the women's 10m event, while Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding are also fancied in the men's 3m springboard.