How to score in Olympic diving: What Tom Daley must get right to win Paris 2024 medal

Tom Daley is vying for his second Olympic gold medal in synchronised diving at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Daley will be one of the most watched Team Great Britain athletes of the entire Games - where he is among the favourites to add a gold medal to his ever-growing collection.

Aged 30, Daley is now a veteran in Olympics terms, having made his debut as a mere 14-year-old in Beijing back in 2008. Alongside his partner Noah Williams, he begins his pursuit of glory in the men’s synchronised 10-metre platform on Monday 29 July, at the Paris Olympic Aquatic Centre in Saint-Denis, with no preliminary rounds to navigate.

Daley will hope to become the first British diver to win five Olympic medals, having claimed his first bronze on home soil at London 2012. The event gets underway at 10am UK time - and the Express is on hand to guide you through everything you need to know about synchronised diving when cheering on the Team GB legend.

What is synchronised Olympic diving - and how is it scored?

Synchronised diving involves two men or two women competing together at the same time. The pair are judged based on both their own execution of the dives and their synchronisation when doing so.

A total of 11 judges are involved in synchronised diving, with six of them judging the divers’ execution (three per diver) and five judging synchronisation. The five synchronisation judges take into account the approach, take off, timing of movements, angles of entry, distance from the board at entry and timings of entry.

The middle score for each diver’s execution is retained - and the highest and lowest synchronisation scores are removed to leave five scores. Those five scores are multiplied by 0.6 to make them comparable to the scores which are seen in individual diving, and then multiplied by the level of difficulty in order to obtain the final score.

What are the different dive groups in Olympic diving?

There are six different types of dives at the Olympics, with the names referencing the diver’s starting position and the direction in which they dive. These are: Forward, Back, Reverse, Inward, Twisting and Armstand.

Forward dives see divers facing the pool at the start, before rotating away from the board. Backward dives see divers face away from the pool and rotate backwards away from the platform.

For reverse dives, divers face the pool and rotate backwards towards the board. Inward dives see competitors face away from the pool and rotate towards the platform.

Twisting dives reference the actual content of the dive rather than the starting position or direction, requiring at least one twist. Finally, Armstand dives involve divers starting their dives in a handstand position on the platform edge.

What do the different dive positions mean in Olympic diving?

The four positions in Olympic diving are: Straight, Pike, Tuck and Free.

Straight position sees divers keeping a straight line through their body with their arms down by their sides. In Pike position, divers bend at the waist while their chests lay against their thighs.

Tuck position requires divers to bring their knees up to their chests while keeping their hands on their shins and their toes pointed down. Free position is included in Twisting and Armstand dives, and involves divers combining two or all of the other three positions in their dive.

Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics.