Team GB make splash with first medal of Paris Olympics in dramatic diving event

A sumptuous Chinese procession, an epic Australian choke and a first medal of the 2024 Olympics for Team GB. On a dramatic first morning in the Aquatics Arena, Scarlett Mew Jensen and Yasmin Harper claimed a bronze medal in the women’s synchronised 3m springboard, proving one of the oldest truisms in diving: you need talent, you need training, you need dedication and you need resilience. But sometimes, you also just need a little luck.

Luck was scarcely a factor for the Chinese pair of Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen, unbeaten at global level since 2022, and who glided to victory by a margin of more than 23 points here. In an event where the bars to entry are vertiginously high, where every competitor is polished and accomplished in ways we can barely imagined, the Chinese still somehow managed to look as though they were competing on a different plane, not so much diving into the water as diving through it, folding themselves into the pool as if guided by computer design.

But for Mew Jensen and Harper, sitting in fourth position going into the final round of dives, a spirited effort was followed by an agonising wait. China had secured gold, the United States pair of Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook the silver. Australia, represented by Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith, were well clear in third. A halfway competent final dive, the forward two-and-a-half somersaults with a twist, would earn them a medal.

Instead as they made their final spring, Smith slipped on the corner of the board and flew off at a diagonal angle, spinning and landing with all the grace of a crash test dummy being hurled out of an upstairs window. The dream was over; four years of hard work detonated in an almighty splash, and afterwards Smith – who came into this competition with a reputation as the more reliable of the pair – was utterly inconsolable.

For much of the competition, it looked as though Mew Jensen and Harper would fall short. They nailed their first effort, a simple back dive, putting them in second. But Harper fatally over-rotated on their third dive – the same dive that would floor the Australians later – leaving them in sixth, behind not just Australia but also Germany and Italy.

But then, these are two women who have sailed through far tougher waters than these. Mew Jensen, from Tower Hamlets, crashed out of the Tokyo Games three years ago and just a couple of months later was plunged into grief at the death of her coach, David Jenkins, from sudden adult death syndrome. He was just 31. Now working with a new coach, Jane Figuereido, and with the help of extensive therapy sessions, she had fought her way to the top of the sport that first captured her imagination more than a decade ago, when she could hear the roar of the Olympic Stadium from her London front room.

Harper trains at Ponds Forge in Sheffield under the tutelage of Tom Owens and came to the sport relatively late – aged 14 – after switching from gymnastics. Mew Jensen remembers a junior competition when Harper hit the board during practice and emerged from the pool with her entire shin covered in blood. A generous helping of bandages later, she was back on the board, and naturally won.

The pair competed together as juniors before teaming up formally in 2022. A silver at the world championships in Fukuoka last year was followed by bronze in Doha in February. And yet while they outperformed their scores in both those championships, for most of the morning they looked like falling short. As they clambered out of the pool after their final dive, they looked defiant but beaten, aware they were now relying on a miracle. To their delight, and that of the millions watching back home, it arrived.