14-year-old diver Quan Hongchan from China did the absolutely unimaginable on Thursday, shattering the Olympic diving record in the 10m platform — which included two perfect 10.0 dives. This, her last of the competition, has to be seen to be believed.
You NEED to see this perfect 10.0 dive at the Olympics
This is what perfection looks like.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Not only were the elements of her dive executed flawlessly, but she made less of a splash entering the water from 32 feet in the air than my 4-year-old does jumping off the edge of the pool. The dive, and the perfect ripped entry, left the announce team stunned, imploring viewers to make a mental note of what they’d witnessed, because it would likely never happen again.
Quan’s five dive total was an absolutely mind boggling 466.20 out of a possible 477. In a sport where you can routinely medal with dives in the 83-86 range, Quan averaged 93.2. To put this in perspective the prior Olympic record of 447.70 required a five dive average of 89.54. So this is a case where the 14-year-old didn’t just break the record, she destroyed it.
Just in case that all wasn’t amazing enough, consider this: The Olympics were Quan’s first major international competition, because she was too young to compete. She only turned 14 earlier this year, and wouldn’t have been able to compete at the games, had they been held as scheduled in 2020.
Now she’s reached the top of her sport at the youngest possible age.
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