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Diving at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 10 metre platform

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Men's platform diving
at the Games of the IV Olympiad
VenueWhite City Stadium
Dates20–24 July
Competitors24 from 6 nations
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Hjalmar Johansson  Sweden
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Karl Malmström  Sweden
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Arvid Spångberg  Sweden
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1912 →
Official 1908 Highlight Film 10m Platform @ 1:12

The men's 10 metre platform, also known as the high diving competition, was one of two diving events on the diving at the 1908 Summer Olympics programme, along with the men's 3 metre springboard. The competition was held from Monday 20 to Friday 24 July 1908. Twenty-four divers from six nations competed. Each nation could enter up to 12 divers.[1][2]

Competition format

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The competition was actually held from both 10 metre and 5 metre platforms. Divers performed a running plain dive and a backward somersault from the 5 metre platform, a running plain dive and a standing plain dive from the 10 metre platform, and three dives of the competitor's choice from the 10 metre platform.[3] The voluntary dives were selected from a list of 14 options.[4]

Each judge gave a score between 0 and 10 points, in increments of half a point, for each dive. The scores for the voluntary dives were multiplied by the degree of difficulty (difficulty ranged from 1.2 to 2.1 per dive). No degree of difficulty multiplier was used for the compulsory dives. The dive scores from each judge were summed and divided by 3, with the three judges' results added to give a final score. However, the final scores were not technically determinative (except as tie-breakers); after the scores were calculated, each judge ranked the competitors (and could choose to follow the scores or not) and the competition was decided on a point-for-place system with the competitor with the lowest total ranking from the three judges winning. Final scores were used as tie-breakers if this aggregate ranking was tied.[5] In no case was the point-for-place result different for any round from the final scores, however; the Official Report contains only the final scores and not the ordinal rankings from the judges.[6] Indeed, it appears that "the ordinal scores are not recorded in any source" and "the individual judges' scores are not known, so it is not possible to reconstruct the ordinal placements."[2]

The competition was held over three rounds (first round, semifinals, and final). The first round consisted of 5 groups of between 4 and 6 divers each; the top 2 divers in each group advanced to the semifinals. The semifinals consisted of 2 groups of 5 divers each. The top 2 divers in each group advanced to the final. The final featured 5 divers (due to a successful protest leading to an additional diver advancing).

Results

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First round

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The two divers who scored the greatest number of points in each group of the first round advanced to the semifinals.

Group 1

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Rank Diver Nation Score Notes
1 George Gaidzik  United States 81.8 Q
2 Harold Goodworth  Great Britain 76.0 Q
3 Erik Adlerz  Sweden 74.1
4 Oskar Wetzell  Finland 69.7
5 James Aldous  Great Britain 68.0

Group 2

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Rank Diver Nation Score Notes
1 Hjalmar Johansson  Sweden 78.4 Q
2 Karl Malmström  Sweden 73.95 Q
3 William Hoare  Great Britain 65.2
4 Jérome Hicketick  Belgium DNF

Group 3

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Rank Diver Nation Score Notes
1 Hilmer Löfberg  Sweden 68.9 Q
2 Heinz Freyschmidt  Germany 67.3 Q
3 Sigfrid Larsson  Sweden 64.8
4 William Webb  Great Britain 57.7
5 Frank Collings  Great Britain 56.5

Group 4

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Cane landed poorly in one of his dives, passing out in the water. Hjalmar Johansson, who had won group 2 and would eventually take the gold medal, rescued him. Cane "was quickly revived and sustained no major injuries,",[2] but "was so seriously shaken as to be unable to leave his bed for some days."[7] This incident led to calls to ban double somersaults.[8] Double somersaults do not appear to have been permitted again until 1928.

Rank Diver Nation Score Notes
1 Arvid Spångberg  Sweden 79.2 Q
2 Harald Arbin  Sweden 76.8 Q
3 George Cane  Great Britain 73.1
4 Gunnar Wingqvist  Sweden 65.70

Group 5

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Rank Diver Nation Score Notes
1 Robert Andersson  Sweden 73.55 Q
2 Toivo Aro  Finland 69.5 Q
3 Harold Grote  United States 62.8
4 Axel Runström  Sweden 57.6
5 Fritz Nicolai  Germany 54.5
6 Thomas Harrington  Great Britain 53.15

Semifinals

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The two divers from each semifinal with the highest scores advanced to the final. Following a protest, a third diver from the second semifinal, George Gaidzik, was also included in the final. One of the judges had given Gaidzik dive scores of 0, asserting that Gaidzik was receiving coaching from a teammate signaling from the ground; the American team protested successfully, resulting in Gaidzik advancing along with the two top divers.[2]

Semifinal 1

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Arvid Spångberg winning the bronze medal.
Rank Diver Nation Score Notes
1 Arvid Spångberg  Sweden 72.3 Q
2 Karl Malmström  Sweden 67.0 Q
3 Toivo Aro  Finland 62.7
4 Hilmer Löfberg  Sweden 59.18
5 Harald Arbin  Sweden 52.81

Semifinal 2

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Rank Diver Nation Score Notes
1 Hjalmar Johansson  Sweden 80.75 Q
2 Robert Andersson  Sweden 66.75 Q
3 George Gaidzik  United States 61.0 Q
4 Harold Goodworth  Great Britain 59.48
5 Heinz Freyschmidt  Germany 48.8

Final

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Rank Diver Nation Score
1st place, gold medalist(s) Hjalmar Johansson  Sweden 83.75
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Karl Malmström  Sweden 78.73
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Arvid Spångberg  Sweden 74.00
4 Robert Andersson  Sweden 68.30
5 George Gaidzik  United States 56.30

References

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  1. ^ Official Report, p. 40.
  2. ^ a b c d Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Diving at the 1908 London Summer Games: Men's Platform". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  3. ^ Official Report, pp. 574–75.
  4. ^ Official Report, pp. 576, 586.
  5. ^ Official Report, pp. 575–76.
  6. ^ Official Report, p. 305.
  7. ^ Official Report, p. 296.
  8. ^ Official Report, p. 297.

Sources

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  • Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report. London: British Olympic Association.
  • De Wael, Herman (2001). "Diving 1908". Herman's Full Olympians. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2006.