Here are 5 cool things you might not
know about this year’s event.
1. NO SEMIFINALS
In the four individual events,
athletes will go directly from preliminaries to the finals, which means two
things: there will be no time to have a bad day, and the divers from all 13
nations will have to arrive in top form. Thursday will feature all the prelims
(in 3m and 10m for both men and women). The five other events (synchro and
team) will be finals-only.
2. KA-CHING!
Since there are only 60 divers in the
entire field, each athlete has a very good chance of cashing in on his or her
performances. Prize money will be awarded to the top-6 finishers in the
individual events ($6,000 US to the winner, $5,000 to the runner-up, $4,000 for
third place, and so on), and the same amounts will be given to the top-3 in the
synchro and mixed team events.
Considering men’s events are six
rounds, that’s $1,000 per dive for the male event winners, and $1,200 per dive
for female winners because women’s events are five rounds.
Of course, the busiest divers could
end up with the biggest checks. Timo Barthel of Germany, 26, is the lone diver
contesting four events. If he makes the podium in all of them, he could win
$16,000 to $24,000, depending on where he finishes. The busiest female diver,
30-year-old Katrina Young of the United States, is entered in three events so
she could make as much as $18,000 but to do so, she would have to topple the
Chinese juggernaut. China, for all its depth and large (nine-athlete)
delegation, is not entered in the mixed-team event. Several of its athletes
will compete in two events, though.
3. STOP, DROP, & WATCH THIS
For those who love a rivalry, two
must-see events will feature Chinese teenagers Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi as
they compete against each other in the women’s 10m final on Saturday, and
combine their exquisite talents in the women’s 10m synchro on Friday. Quan, a
farmer’s daughter, won Olympic gold in Tokyo at age 14 by accruing 24 perfect scores
(out of 35 possible) including 10s from all seven judges on two of her dives to
upset the reigning world champion, Chen, who took the silver. But this summer
in Budapest, the order flipped as Chen won her second consecutive world title
and Quan took the silver.
The headliner on the men’s side is
undeniably Cao Yuan of China, 27, a five-time Olympic medalist and eight-time
world championships medalist. Notably, Cao won Olympic gold in Rio 2016 on the
3m board, and gold in Tokyo 2020 on the 10m platform. In Berlin, he will focus
only on the springboard. His 3m final is on Friday and his 3m synchro final
(with 2020 Tokyo Olympic synchro champion and individual 3m Tokyo Olympic
silver medalist Wang Zongyuan) is on Saturday.
4. COMBO PLATTER
For the first time in history, a
Diving World Cup is being held in tandem with a Swimming World Cup at the same
venue. For four days (Wednesday through Sunday), the action will be virtually
continuous and encourage athletes from the two disciplines to bond and cheer for
one another.
5. VENUE VELO CONNECTION
The SSE swimming and diving hall is a
50-minute drive from the Berlin Brandenburg international airport and it’s
connected to a velodrome. Both the cycling and aquatics arenas are built mostly
underground, surrounded by a park featuring hundreds of apple trees. The whole
site is about 30,000 square meters. The complex was built when Berlin was
bidding to host the 2000 Olympics (which were awarded to Sydney, Australia).
The swim hall opened in 1999 and claims to be the largest indoor swimming venue
in Europe. It can accommodate 2,000 to 4,500 spectators. SSE is a German
acronym for Schwimm- und Sprung-halle im Europasportpark. Diving is the
“Sprung.”
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