The first Olympic diving events were contested by men and consisted of a platform diving event ("fancy high diving") and also a plunge for distance event, which heralded victorious the diver who could reach the farthest underwater, while remaining motionless after a ground-level standing dive. At the 1908 Summer Olympics, men's springboard diving was added to the program replacing the plunge for distance, regarded as uninteresting.[2] Women's diving debut happened at the 1912 Summer Olympics in the platform event and was expanded to springboard diving at the 1920 Summer Olympics. A parallel platform diving event for men, called "plain high diving", was presented at the Games of the V Olympiad. No acrobatic moves were allowed, only a simple straight dive off the platform.[3] It was last contested at the 1924 Summer Olympics after which it was merged with "fancy high diving" into one competition renamed "highboard diving" (or just "high diving").[4]
By the time of the 1996 Summer Olympics, the diving events were exactly the same as in 1928 (2 men's and 2 women's events). However, four years later in Sydney, the inclusion of a synchronized diving variant for the springboard and platform events elevated the list up to eight events (4 men's and 4 women's events).
Another important change to the sport occurred at the 1984 Summer Olympics, when China first competed, after boycotting the previous games due to the political status of Taiwan.[5]China has become the dominant diving power and accumulated 55 gold medals since 1984.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Chinese divers swept all of the available events, winning a record eight gold medals. The Chinese team also surpassed United States at the all-time medal tally after this edition of the games.
