Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Mexico's Aranza Vazquez Montano scores zero after disastrous dive to miss 3m springboard final
Published 08/08/2024 at 16:42 GMT+1
Spectators winced yesterday as Alison Gibson smashed her feet against the diving board and plummeted into the water for a blank score. Aranza Vazquez Montano had a similar incident today, also scoring zero for her fourth round dive. The Mexican diver claimed she was distracted by the crowd during her attempt, but officials weren't convinced. Both divers failed to qualify for the final tomorrow.
'Forwards, gone wrong, crash!' - Mexican diver Vazquez hits water horizontally, and then protests
Video credit: TNT Sports
Aranza Vazquez Montano had a dive to forget during the women's 3m springboard semi-finals, drawing blank on her fourth dive as she plummeted awkwardly into the water.
Montano Vazquez immediately stuck her hand in the air as she emerged from the water and demanded to speak to officials, claiming she was distracted by the crowd.
Despite protests from Vazquez Montano and her team, the Mexican was unsuccessful with her appeal as judges stuck with the decision to award her zero points.
The referee was heard explaining that the noise from the crowd was not made during her dive.
"I heard the noise before you walked," said the official.
Vazquez Montano was sitting in seventh place after three rounds with a score of 180.70, but fell down the leaderboard to 18th after not adding to her total in the fourth round.
The Mexican diver finished in 16th place and unsurprisingly didn't qualify for the final, scoring 248.20.
However, if Vazquez Montano had scored her average in the dive which she blanked, she would have finished with 310.25 in sixth place, which would have been enough to qualify for the final.
The crowd and commentators would have winced as Vazquez Montano entered the water with her body tangled.
"Forwards, gone wrong, crash," said the Eurosport commentator. "She is grimacing here as she dives, she knows she is not going to make it.
"If a diver immediately puts up their hand they're signalling that they want to speak to the referee, she is protesting. My opinion is that wasn't a failed dive."
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There is a history of this incident occuring in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where gold medallist Aleksandr Portnov was permitted a second dive, after complaining that crowd noise impacted his first attempt.
Vazquez was visibly upset and frustrated after her fourth dive and likely knew her Olympics was over at that point.
"She is heartbroken," Jose Gomez Ruiz, press attache of the Mexico Olympic delegation, told Reuters. "As you can see she is a good diver. The only thing she asked me is please take me out of here.
"Right before the judge whistled, she hears a sound that distracts her and she failed to jump."
This is the second diving disaster in as many days, with America's Alison Gibson smashing her feet against the board and landing awkwardly in the water yesterday during her first dive.
Gibson also scored zero points, which led to her finishing dead last in the preliminary round of the women's 3m springboard, but would have been glad just to walk away from the incident unharmed.
"Now she is going to be okay because she hit her feet and not her heels. She is very lucky there, if she hit her heels she wouldn't be walking out of here. This is going to be horrible if they show the replay," said the commentator.
Gibson retired from diving following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, but came out of retirement just a year later. It is possible that this may be the American's last Olympics.
Chinese diver Chen Yiwen finished first in the semi-final, while Team GB's Grace Reid and Yasmin Harper also made the final.
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