The women's 3 metre springboarddiving competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo was held from 30 July to 1 August 2021 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.[1] It was the 24th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Olympic Games since the 1920 Summer Olympics.
Preliminary round: All divers performed five dives; the top 18 divers advanced to the semi-final.
Semi-final: The 18 divers performed five dives; the scores of the qualifications were erased and the top 12 divers advanced to the final.
Final: The 12 divers performed five dives; the semi-final scores were erased and the top three divers won the gold, silver and bronze medals accordingly.
Within each round of five dives, one dive must be from each of the five groups (forward, back, reverse, inward, and twisting). Each dive was assigned a degree of difficulty based on somersaults, position, twists, approach, and entry. There was no limit to the degree of difficulty of dives; the most difficult dives calculated in the FINA rulebook (reverse 4 1⁄2 somersault in pike position and back 4 1⁄2 somersault in pike position) were 4.7, but competitors could attempt more difficult dives. Scoring was done by a panel of seven judges. For each dive, each judge gave a score between 0 and 10 with 0.5 point increments. The top two and bottom two scores were discarded. The remaining three scores were summed and multiplied by the degree of difficulty to give a dive score. The five dive scores were summed to give the score for the round.[2]
The top 12 divers at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships earned a quota spot for their NOC. The top 1 diver at each of the 5 continental championships earned a spot (excluding divers who earned a spot at the World Championships and divers from NOCs that had already earned two spots). Additional quota places go to the next best finishers in the 2020 FINA World Cup (with the same limitations) until the maximum number of divers is reached. Divers must be at least 14 years old by the end of 2020 to compete.[3]
