Jaele Patrick
Going to the Olympics means everything to me! I've been dreaming about this since I started gym when I was 6 years old, and the dream continued when I moved from gym to diving. I'm living my dream.
Making the Olympics was such a long process for the divers so when the team was officially announced I felt such pride. Pride in my accomplishments, and pride that I will be able to represent my country doing something I love. It made all the hard time worthwhile.
I'm really looking forward to the whole experience. I want to embrace everything and do my country proud!
Jaele Patrick's Sport for Women profile
Jaele Patrick's Australian Olympic Team profile
Brittany Broben
Sharleen Stratton
Diving 101
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Jargon buster
Pike: A diving position where the body is bent at the hips with the legs straight and the toes pointed.
Rip: The ideal entry when a diver hits the water without making a splash. It is named after the ripping sound as the diver enters the water.
Platform: The board (either 3m or 10m) from which divers start their jumps.
Elevation: The height a diver achieves from a take-off.
Approach: Steps a diver takes to the end of a springboard or platform before take-off.
Entry: The end of a dive when the diver enters the water. The entry should be vertical. Ideally, although there is no such rule, the diver should create little or no splash.
Basic rules
Olympic diving competitions are strictly airborne and are held at two heights; a ‘springboard’ dive set at 3m above the water and a ‘platform’ dive, set at 10m.
Athletes compete individually and in pairs (synchronised diving, or ‘synchro’). Individual events consist of a preliminary round, semi-final and final, while the synchro competitions are straight finals.
Styles of diving include front, back, reverse, inward, twist and armstand, with points awarded according to technique and grace. The more difficult the dive the higher the points it can score if executed well.
Judges must also take into account starting positions, run-ups, take-offs, flight and entry into water (which should be perpendicular and cause as little splash as possible).
Each of the seven judges score dives out of 10 and the athlete with the highest total is the winner.
