Featured Image Credit: Adam Pretty/Getty Images / MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Olympics, Sport, World News, BBC
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Olympics, Sport, World News, BBC
Not every Olympic story ends up being a happy one and a second diver in the Paris Olympics has been awarded a score of zero from the judges.
The Olympics is a tension-heavy atmosphere, to say the least. Athletes carry the expectations of everyone watching, friends and family, coaches and trainers - not to mention their whole country.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether you have done something a million times, when it comes to game day, now and again it just doesn’t come together.
This seemed to be the case for Mexican diver Aranza Vazquez as her Olympic dreams quickly devolved into a nightmare as the athlete scored a zero in the 3 meter springboard event.
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This marked the second diver to score a zero in the Paris Olympics in diving as US diver Alison Gibson also suffered a heartbreaking incident that saw her land a zero.
Gibson's very first dive during the preliminary event resulted in her hitting her feet and heels on the board, with the impact causing her to lose momentum and entering the water feet first.
Gibson was hoping to secure her spot in the women's 3m springboard semi-finals. Similarly, Vaquez was hoping to secure herself a place in Friday's (August 9) 3m springboard final with her performance.
She even seemed to be off to a good start on Thursday and sat seventh after her third dive.
However, on her fourth dive of the day, things just didn’t come together.
Attempting a couple of backwards somersaults, at a difficulty level of 3.0, she appeared to misjudge her takeoff.
She plummeted to the water, ending in an unnatural position on her back with BBC commentators calling it a ‘disastrous dive’.
After Vaquez splashed into the water, pundit and former diver Leon Taylor said: “Disastrous dive, you could tell that was going to happen.
“She’s holding her hand up which means she wants to speak to the referee. If the referee thinks the complaint is valid he will allow a restart.
“Otherwise, if he doesn’t think it’s valid, a bit like the false starts in athletics, you can run under protest but there’s no such thing in diving."
Unfortunately, Vaquez’s appeal proved to be unsuccessful meaning her score of zero would stand and she wouldn’t get another opportunity to dive.
Taylor added: “I don’t know what the complaint is so I can’t really comment on the validity of it. I didn’t see any flashes but I’m not on the diving board.
“It’s not really controversial, I think that’s OK from a decision.”