Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray have won Canada’s first ever Olympic medal in the men’s synchronized 10m platform event, diving to bronze at Paris 2024.
They scored 422.13 for their six dives to land on the third step of the podium behind China and Great Britain.
In men’s synchro diving, the first two rounds are scored solely for their execution and synchronicity, with each dive carrying just a 2.0 degree of difficulty. In the last four rounds, each pairing can choose to perform whatever degree of difficulty dives they want.
For their opening dive, Wiens and Zsombor-Murray scored 53.40 which put them into a tie for second with Team GB’s Tom Daley and Noah Williams behind China’s Lian Junjie and Yang Hao. In round two, the Canadians added 51.60 points to their total which continued to keep them tied with the Brits for second place.
In the third round, Wiens and Zsombor-Murray went for an inward 3 1/2 somersaults in tuck position, which produced a little bit of splash on the entry, but notched them 78.72 points for a running total of 183.72, putting them third at the midway mark of the competition, 4.8 points back of Daley and Williams while Lian and Yang opened up their first place lead.
For their fourth dive, Wiens and Zsombor-Murray went for their hardest degree of difficulty with the forward 4 1/2 somersaults in tuck position. It added 83.25 points to their total, which kept them in third place, more than 12 points ahead of the fourth place Mexican team.
Dive number five was a reverse 3 1/2 somersaults in tuck position, their second highest degree of difficulty. With some synchronicity issues, it scored them 75.48 for a running total of 342.45 which maintained their third-place positioning.
In their final showcase for the judges, Wiens and Zsombor-Murray went for a back 2 1.2 somersaults with 1 1/2 twists in pike position. They saved their best execution for last, getting a solid set of 8’s for 79.68 points and a final score of 422.13. The fourth-place Mexican duo of Kevin Berlin Reyes and Randal Willars Valdez made it interesting when they also posted their highest score of the day, but they couldn’t make up the margin, ending up 3.48 behind the Canadians.
Lian and Yang got the gold for China with 490.35 points while Daley and Williams took the silver with a score of 463.44.
Wiens and Zsombor-Murray previously made history when they won bronze at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships. That was Canada’s first ever world championship medal in the men’s 10m synchro event.
Canada’s previous best Olympic result in the event was fifth place, achieved at Athens 2004 by Alexandre Despatie and Philippe Comtois, and again at Tokyo 2020 by Zsombor-Murray and his former partner Vincent Riendeau.
This is Canada’s first Olympic medal in any men’s diving event since Beijing 2008 when Despatie took silver in the 3m springboard.
