‘Crazy’ diving bronze for Scarlett Mew Jensen and birthday girl Yasmin Harper
Australia made a mess of their final dive to hand Team GB its first medal of the Games.
Scarlett Mew Jensen admitted it is “crazy” to have secured Team GB’s first medal of Paris 2024 after claiming bronze alongside partner Yasmin Harper in a dramatic women’s 3m synchronised springboard diving final.
After a bright start, the duo plummeted down the scoreboard into sixth after scoring 63.90, but they quickly improved with the following dive, scoring 71.10 to claw their way back into fourth place.
A blunder from Australian pair Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith in the final round meant Mew Jensen and Harper snatched bronze – Team GB’s first of this summer’s Games.
Reflecting on her medal, Mew Jensen said: “(It’s) crazy, I don’t think I can quite believe it right now. I’m super proud of Yas, super proud of myself and super proud of the team.
“We’ve worked insanely hard and couldn’t have come out with a better outcome, so really happy.”
The event boiled down to the final round and the battle for bronze was on between Team GB and Australia.
Mew Jensen and Harper set themselves up with a solid 70.68 in the fifth round, before a dramatic twist of events saw Smith slip on the diving board during her take-off and Australia fell short with a score of 48.60.
They trickled down the scoreboard to finish fifth overall and Mew Jensen admitted it was a “shock” to see Australia’s mistake.
Speaking about the pressure going into the final round of dives, she said: “We knew that even if we did a good one we’d still be on the back foot.
“We knew that Australia needed to mess up basically, so for that to actually happen, we were very shocked because that’s a very easy dive for them, they’re very talented, very experienced Olympic medallists themselves.
“It was very shocking towards that last dive, but we knew we needed to deliver towards the end.”
Although Team GB’s place on the podium was all but sealed following Australia’s slip, Harper admitted she still had an eye on the scoreboard to confirm their final position.
She said: “We knew it was going to be tight and to watch them not perform on the last round.
“I think I feel like I knew straight away it wasn’t enough, in diving you can kind of tell where or whereabouts the score is going to be at.
“So for us, I think we knew, but at the same time you’re still waiting for that scoreboard to pop up and show whether we’ve done it or not.”
China’s Yani Chang and Yiwen Chen eased to gold with a consistent performance that saw them finish first across the five rounds, while USA pair Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook claimed silver.
Mew Jensen and Harper are the first British women to win an Olympic medal in diving since Elizabeth Ferris won bronze in the 10m platform in Rome in 1960.
The bronze was an early birthday present for Harper, who turns 24 on Sunday, and she is hoping to squeeze in some celebrations before competing in the individual synchro event, which begins with the preliminaries on August 7.
“Birthday tomorrow, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Harper said.
“See what’s going on, maybe go and see Paris and have a bit of a celebration.”
