It turns out diving is harder than you’d think. This Filipino diver showed us a month ago, and then Australian diver Maddison Keeney exemplified that sometimes the nerves get the best of you, as she botched a dive on Wednesday at the World Aquatic Championships in Russia.
This is what a dive worth 0.0 points looks like
Euro Sport
You can see on the left that the pike and twist animation was the dive she was supposed to do, but ... she just dove in like a normal person would. And the reactions from the coach and the people around him are about what you’d expect:
The judges gave her a 0.0, which brought her down to last place, according to the Daily Mail. It seems pretty harsh, but considering that this is a major competition, it also seems fair. And apparently, this isn't the first time she's botched a dive before -- the last time she did, according to The Australian, she was set on winning gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, but ended up not winning it:
The 18-year-old, Brisbane-based Keeney was in the gold medal position when she led the 1m competition into the second last round on Friday night local time, but nerves got the better of her as she skipped down the board and her legs buckled beneath her.
Somehow she pulled out of the dive without tumbling into Edinburgh’s Royal Commonwealth Pool but the baulk meant two points were deducted from each of the judges’ scores and in the end she missed the gold by a mere 5.30 points.
It’s never a good feeling to see someone mess up like that. Hopefully, Keeney brushed this off and at the next competition, she’ll do a dive more graceful than this.
(h/t Imgur)
★★★
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