This is the Morning Win. For the next couple of weeks, we’ll be writing each weekday morning about the Tokyo Olympics. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.
Every time the Olympics roll around – be it the Winter or Summer Games – an event seems to pop up that you’ve never really thought about but it then quickly becomes something you can’t turn away from.
For me, in these Tokyo Games, that sport has become synchronized diving and yesterday’s men’s synchronized platform diving final had me on the edge of my seat.
That’s something I definitely didn’t see coming just a few days ago but I’m glad that it did because all the different synchronized diving events are awesome.
And yes, there are lots of awesome events in the Olympics – swimming, gymnastics, team handball, and many more. But this synchronized diving is just so wild.
Yesterday’s finale was a beautiful, pressure-packed competition that saw Great Britain’s Tom Daley (who gave a great speech to the LGBTQ+ commuity) finally win his first gold medal as he and Matty Lee teamed up to edge a team from China. The gold wasn’t decided until the final dive by China, which looked like a pretty flawless dive. Everyone then stood there waiting for the judges’ numbers to be released and when they were, Daley and Lee went nuts, which was an awesome moment.
Now, I know very little about diving but what these athletes can do in synchronized diving just blows my mind. The platform is 10 meters high (just under 33 feet) and two divers just stand atop that thing before launching into a number of flips and twists before hitting the water at same time.
The courage and timing that all takes blows my mind. It’s a thing of absolute beauty and it all leads to some pretty incredible photos, too.
I want to know who these divers get into the synchronized world. Do they just see someone else training and be like – “Hey, want to dive at the same time?”
I’m kidding, of course, because I know the process is a lot more complex than that.
I am just in awe of what they can do and I can’t wait to watch the women’s final later tonight (even thought it happened already today and I don’t want to see any spoilers) and the men’s 3-meter springboard final tomorrow.
Because yeah, synchronized diving rules.
Quick hits: Fans had jokes about Jordan Love… Ripken, Darling have confusing talk about pitchers… NFL rookies react to Madden ratings… And more.
– Well, it looks like Aaron Rodgers is going to play for the Packers this year after all and NFL fans had lots of jokes about his backup, Jordan Love.
– Billy Ripken and Ron Darling had a mind-boggling discussion about pitchers this year not pitching as fast as those in years past and man was this a bad segment on MLB Network.
– Mac Jones and other NFL rookies had funny reactions to their ‘Madden NFL 22’ ratings.
– Diane Sawyer is down for a date with Ted Lasso, which is great.
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