Diving

History

Those who think that the art of diving into water from a high up spot came about recently, are wrong. The activity from which diving seems to originate from is painted on 4 thousand year old walls. These paintings show the people from Babylonia, Chaldea and Ancient Egypt diving from high up sports, with the aim of reaching food, or finding treasure at the bottom of the sea.

As a sport, the first diving competitions date back to 1822 and were held in Germany. However, it was only in 1871 that the competition was photographed and documented for the first time. This took place in England and a bridge was used as a diving platform. Years later, the British capital city built a five metre tall tower that started to be used as a diving platform. That was the starting point for the sport to be disseminated and reach the United States.

Nevertheless, the first World Diving Championship was only held by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) in 1973, in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia.  The sport has been a part of the Olympic programme since the 1904 Games in St. Louis, with men's platform events.

Curiosities

In tune

Even though diving has been an Olympic sport for over a century, it was only in the Sydney edition of the Games in 2000, that synchronised diving was included in the Olympic programme. In synchronised diving, athletes dive in doubles, with the challenge of making the same movements at the same time.

First time in Brazil

The first diving competition held in Brazil was in 1913, in Botafogo Bay, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The winner was Adolpho Wllisch, who was also the first diver in the country to take part in the Olympics. Indeed, he was part of the first ever Brazilian Olympic Delegation, which took part in the 1920 Games in Antwerp.