Chloe Rowland
Not everyone is impressed after footage re-emerged of diving superstar Greg Louganis performing what is considered to be one of the ‘best dives ever’.
Now, I have to admit, I’m definitely not qualified to judge was is classed as one of the best dives in history or not - I can just about flop into the pool from the side. But it seems some people were a little disappointed when they saw a clip of what’s widely regarded as one of the most flawless dives ever:
The ‘perfect’ dive took place at the 1986 world championships in Madrid, where American athlete Louganis - who is widely considered to be one of the greatest divers in history - performed a swan dive off the three-meter springboard, with virtually no splash as he hit the water.
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During the clip, you can hear the audience roar with cheers as he emerges from the water, clearly pleased with his efforts.
He scored 9.5s and 10s for the feat - which for anyone not familiar with diving is essentially very, very good.
The athlete soared to victory in both his events at the championships and just two years later, went on to become a double Olympic champion as he competed at the Seoul Games.
But after footage of his swan dive began circulating online again, it seems not everyone was impressed, with many complaining it didn’t deserve the high praise it got.
“Is that a joke?” asked one user.
“Look. I expected more than that. I’ve seen teenage boys mucking around, jumping off rocks doing stuff more impressive. We have moved on,” complained another.
Meanwhile, a third said: “Nice dive but it was basic asf, show us some mad dog doing a triple reverse somersault pike with 3.5 twists.”
However, one commenter fired back, explaining that while the dive doesn’t contain any fancy flips and twists like we might be used to, it’s actually much harder than it looks.
“This dive is harder to do than the flippy ones bc you're judged on form, entry, precision, and difficulty for dives,” they wrote. “So you give them less to judge but it has to be perfect in every way. more flips usually means higher difficulty but w this the extreme difficulty is in the precision.”
Adding: “He has to be perfectly straight, he has to get high then turn in the air directly above the board w as little forward momentum as possible. and he has to go perfectly vertical into the water w almost zero splash. Incredibly he literally does everything perfect here. laser perfect.
“Just a massive massive flex.”
Well, that’s them told.
I think it’s safe to say that regardless of opinion over his ‘perfect’ 1986 dive, he certainly impressed judges enough to cement himself as one of the greats.
Think I’ll just stick to dive bombing for now, thanks.