The rules used for judging and scoring an Olympic diving contest are dictated by FINA, the international governing body for the aquatics and the body that oversees the sport of diving.
Springboard Diving
- All springboard diving in the Olympic Games is contested from the 3-meter springboard.
- Men must complete six dives.
- Women must complete five dives.
- There is no limit on the total degree of difficulty for these dives.
- At least one dive during the contest must come from each of five different categories – forward, back, reverse, inward, and twisting.
- Men may repeat one of the categories for their sixth dive, women may not.
- No dive can be repeated in a list of dives.
- The sixth optional dive for the men may be chosen from any of the categories.
Platform Diving
- Men must complete six dives.
- Women must complete five dives.
- There is no limit on total degree of difficulty for these dives.
- For the men, at least one dive during the contest must come from each of five different six different categories – forward, back, reverse, inward, twisting and armstand.
- No category can be repeated in a list of dives.
- All dives must be competed from the 10-meter platform.
- Synchronized Springboard and Platform Diving
- Women must complete five dives.
- Men must complete six dives.
- The first two dives for both the men and women are assigned a degree of difficulty of 2.0.
- The remaining three dives for the women and four dives for the men have no limit on the degree of difficulty.
- Both men and women must compete dives that come from at least four different categories, with at least one dive facing forward and that dive cannot be performed from a standing position on the springboard.
- Within the men’s six dives, a category cannot be used more than twice.
Judging
A judge in a diving contest shall award from 0 to 10 points for a dive according to his or her overall impression.
When judging a dive, the judge must not be influenced by any factor other than the technique and execution of the dive. The dive must be considered without regard to the approach to the starting position, the difficulty of the dive, or any movement beneath the surface of the water.
The following elements must be considered with equal importance by judge before awarding a score:
- the starting position and the approach
- the take-off
- the flight
- the entry
Synchronized diving competition involves two competitors diving simultaneously from the springboards or platform. The competition is judged on how the two divers individually perform their dives, and how the two divers as a team synchronize their performance.
The factors to be considered when judging synchronized diving are:
- the starting position, the approach and the take-off, including the similarity of the height
- the coordinated timing of the movements during the flight
- the similarity of the angles of the entries
- the comparative distance from the springboard or platform of the entry
- the coordinated timing of the entries
