Tom Daley and Pete Waterfield were expecting to bring home gold in the 10-meter synchronized platform diving competition at the 2012 London Olympics but an errant fourth dive left the British duo off of the podium.
Daley and Waterfield finished in fourth place behind China’s Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan, Mexico’s German Sánchez Sánchez and Iván García Navarro, and the American pair of Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein.
The Guardian reports that expectations were high for 18-year-old Daley’s second appearance at the Olympics. Daley built a strong following after the Beijing Olympics and was expected to medal this year in London. Daley and Waterfield lost their chance at a medal, however, when they made a mistake on their fourth-round dive.
Daley said:
“We took off and had a great start (to the competition), but I kicked my feet too high and over-rotated (on the fourth dive) and we left ourselves with too much to do…. I said ‘sorry mate’ to Tom, but he said ‘we win as a team and lose as a team…’ We had our highest score ever after three dives, but you can’t afford to miss a dive at this level…. Nine more points and we would’ve been on the podium.”
Daley and Waterfield were able to finish the event strong but could not recover from their missed fourth dive.
Daley added:
“Missing that fourth dive left us with too much to do…. We knew we had out two highest difficulty dives left and were relying on someone else dropping their dive. It’s upsetting that I haven’t been able to realize my dream with Pete of getting a medal. I gave it my all and tried my best, but it wasn’t our day today.”
