Britain Takes Gold in Men's 10m Synchronized Diving, Upsetting Chinese Duo

The Chinese pair of Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen were favored to win Monday's event

Great Britain’s Tom Daley and Matty Lee came back from an early deficit to claim the gold medal in men’s 10m synchronized diving, cutting off China's chance to sweep the set of eight diving events for the first time.

The Chinese duo of Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen were favored to win Monday's event, and in the end only narrowly fell 470.58 to Great Britain's 471.81.

Yuan and Aisen led through the first four rounds of the event and posted the highest score of the final round, but a strong overall performance from Daley and Lee boosted them to the top of the podium.

Both partners making up the Chinese team had won gold in the event before: Chen won in 2016 with Lin Yue, while Britain's Cao took home gold from the 2012 Games partnering with Zhang Yanquan.

It was the first Olympic gold medal for Tom Daley in his fourth Olympic Games. He had medaled in the event in Rio five years ago, taking the bronze with Danny Goodfellow.

Daley will also have a chance to pick up another individual medal in Tokyo when he competes in the men's 10m platform. 

Diving into the water from 10 meters high - the equivlant of a three-story-building - could be terrifying for anyone, but not for an Olympic diver. Katrina Young explains Olympic diving using Legos.

The ROC’s Aleksandr Bondar and Viktor Minibayev rounded out the podium with a score of 439.92.

Shi Tingmao and Wang Han got things started when they took gold in the women’s synchronized springboard.

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