Divers Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen made history by claiming Britain’s first medal of the Paris Olympics with a bronze in the women’s 3m synchronised springboard.
The pair wiped back tears of joy on securing the biggest medal of their careers in the most dramatic circumstances after Australia – who were poised to pip them to third – choked on their final dive.
There were audible gasps inside the newly built Aquatics Centre in Paris when Annabelle Smith and Maddison Keeney – who were nailed-on to make up a deficit of 58.68 and leapfrog Britain into third – suffered a horror show to hand Harper and Mew Jensen the medal.
The British duo’s hopes of securing a medal of any colour looked to be fading after they slipped down the table following underwhelming second and third dives, leaving them in sixth. After performing a solid opening back dive, Harper over-rotated on their third effort – the same manoeuvre which would haunt the Australians on the final round – but the pair held their nerve brilliantly to execute their final dive, which was also their most difficult.
Saving their best until last, their score of 70.68 for their forward three-and-a-half somersault pike was enough to seal bronze behind America’s Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook, while China’s powerhouse pairing of Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen took gold.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Mew Jensen. “We knew that even if we did a good one, we would still be on the back foot. We knew that Australia needed to mess up basically. For that to actually happen, we were very shocked because that’s a very easy dive for them. They are very talented, very experienced, Olympic medallists themselves. It was very, very shocking. We knew we needed to deliver towards the end.”
The duo could scarcely believe their luck as they watched the Australians produced a calamitous final dive. But sometimes in sport you need more than luck; you need nerves of steel – and a touch of sparkly nails.
It was a case of look good, feel good as the pair turned, piked and somersaulted their way to Britain’s first women’s diving medal since 1960 – and the nation’s first opening-day medal at a Games since 2004. Fine nail art has always been a ritualistic part of their preparations for major competitions since the pair, who already have a world silver and bronze in their growing medal haul, started working together last year.
The pair sported Union Flags on their thumbs, with some quirky three-dimensional art on the rest of their manicured nails, courtesy of the nail machine that Harper brought with her to the Olympic village. “It’s the Salon de Yazzy B… that’s what it’s called,” joked Mew Jensen. “But the salon is closed now!”
Their triumph was all the more remarkable given Mew Jensen – who crashed out of the Tokyo Games three years ago before she was left reeling from the sudden death of her coach David Jenkins – suffered a partial back fracture weeks before the event. She thought her prospects of competing in Paris were all but over given she was unable to dive for six weeks, only to make a miraculous recovery.
“I didn’t think it was going to be possible,” she said. “It meant the individual was off the table for me. A month ago, I did my first line-up for this. You’ve got to push that doubt to the side. The team and Yasmin were completely supportive.”
Not since Elizabeth Ferris’s bronze at the 1960 Rome Olympics has a British woman won a medal in this sport at a Games. “We found that out today,” said Harper, who celebrates her 24th birthday on Sunday but was at a loss as to how to celebrate, conceding nothing could top an Olympic medal – and Britain’s first in Paris. “It’s pretty cool and to be able to say that we are the first medallist feels amazing. We knew it was going to be tight and to watch them [the Australians] not perform on the last round. I feel like I knew straight away that it wasn’t enough.”
Smith and Keeney looked more than capable of executing the final dive that would have seen them leapfrog Britain into third. But Smith – a bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Games – slipped off the corner of her board and helplessly spun through the air. The mishap sent her completely out of kilter with her partner as they plummeted towards the water.
“I screamed under water,” Smith, who was gracious in defeat, said afterwards. “I was hoping the cameras weren’t on the under-water cam right there. It’s just disappointing. There’s nothing else really to say.”
Their agony was Britain’s ecstasy.
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