Paris Olympics 2024: Anabelle Smith and Maddison Keeney miss medals after dive disaster
With a medal within grasp Aussie pair Annabelle Smith and Maddison Keeney unfortunately missed out after a final dive that went completely wrong.
In one agonising split second, Anabelle Smith and Maddison Keeney went from medal delight to diving disaster.
Australia’s dynamic duo was left to lament a shocking final dive that sunk their medal hopes in women’s three-metre synchronised springboard on Saturday.
Smith and Keeney won bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the pair needed just a solid final dive to clinch another bronze, and possibly silver, to deliver Australia’s first medal of the Paris Games.
But with a podium finish in sight, the pair’s final dive – a forward 2½ somersault with a twist – was one of the worst of the program as Smith and Keeney hit the water well out of sync.
“This is a disaster ... the Aussies are distraught,” a British commentator said. “They know this has cost them a medal.”
The heartbreaking finale saw the duo plunge from third to fifth, gifting shocked British pair Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen bronze as a shattered Smith was consoled by the Australian coaches.
Smith, at her fourth Games, rued a poor take-off that saw the Melbourne veteran veer sideways as the Centre Aquatique crowd gasped in disbelief.
“It’s pretty brutal ... I screamed underwater,” the 31-year-old said. “I was hoping the cameras weren’t on me on the underwater cam.
“I don’t know what happened. That’s diving. We are trying to control our bodies and spin lots of times on a very bouncy, uneven plank.
“I had a bad hurdle and landed on the side of the board, which affects the rest of the dive.
“I was on the side of the board and was pretty low, I didn’t do a very good dive. I still completed it and didn’t get zeroes, but it wasn’t very good.”
Americans Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook took silver, and Chinese sensations Yiwen Chen and Yani Chang the gold.
The 28-year-old Keeney refused to blame Smith for the medal collapse.
“I didn’t see how ‘May Day’ it was. I was just focused on my dive,” she said.
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