Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.

Diving is one of the most popular Olympic sports with spectators. Competitors possess many of the same characteristics as gymnasts and dancers, including strength, flexibility, kinaesthetic judgment and air awareness.

China came to prominence several decades ago when the sport was revolutionized by national coach Liang Boxi and after intense study of the dominant Louganis. China has lost few world titles since. The success of Greg Louganis has led to American strength in diving internationally. Other noted countries in the sport include Italy, Australia and Canada.

Most diving competitions consist of three disciplines: 1m and 3m springboards, and the platform. Competitive athletes are divided by gender, and often by age group. In platform events, competitors are allowed to perform their dives on either the five, seven and a half (generally just called seven) or ten meter towers. In major diving meets, including the Olympic Games and the World Championships, platform diving is from the 10 meter height.

Dana Kunze is a champion high-diver. He has held the world records for the highest dives. Dana Kunze began his professional high diving career in 1974 at the age of 13. He won his first world championship 1977 and maintained a winning streak for seven years. Dana now maintains a company that produces High Dive Shows. He was tied with the world record for highest dive at 52.4 m (172 ft) until 1985, when Randy Dickison (fracturing his leg in the process) set a record of 174 feet 8 inches at an event in Hong Kong. In 1987, the current record of 53.9 m (177 ft) was set by Olivier Favre.

Gregory "Greg" Efthimios Louganis ( /luːˈɡeɪnɨs/) (born January 29, 1960) is an American Olympic diver and author.

He received the James E. Sullivan Award from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) in 1984 as the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States.

Louganis is of Samoan/Swedish descent. His teenaged parents gave him up for adoption when he was eight months old and he was raised in California by his adoptive parents, a Greek-American couple. As a child he suffered from asthma and a string of allergies; his doctor suggested an exercise program would strengthen his lungs. He was taken to his sister's dance class, and also took up gymnastics and trampoline. He began diving lessons at age eight after the family got a swimming pool and he began attempting his trampoline moves on the diving board. He attended Santana High School in Santee, California, and Valhalla High School in El Cajon, California.

As a Junior Olympic competitor Louganis caught the eye of Dr. Sammy Lee, two-time Olympic champion, who began coaching him. At sixteen Louganis took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he placed second in the tower event, behind Italian sport legend Klaus Dibiasi. Two years later, with Dibiasi retired, Louganis won his first world title in the same event with the help of coach Ron O'Brien. In 1978, he accepted a diving scholarship to the University of Miami where he studied theater, but in 1981 transferred to the University of California, Irvine, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.