A New Favorite

I have totally fallen in love with synchronized diving, in spite of all that toned muscle on display disguised as women’s beach volleyball. Strangely, I don’t remember seeing this diving spectacle debut at Sydney (blame NBC’s selective schedule). Although not as graceful as its pool version, it does remind you of sheer poetry in motion.

The complicated maneuvers compounded further by even more complex judging, make it an extremely enjoyable sport for a quiet evening. The silence before the divers whisper their cues and take off in tandem is enough to hear the proverbial pin drop. The cheers from the stands that follow the rush of the air bubbles to the pool surface upon a perfect entry or the perfect sideways synchronization compensates for the silence earlier on.

Of course, the Chinese excel at making the perfect dives (events that the Chinese do not excel in are rapidly dwindling) with the exception of a botched last dive that sent the Greeks up on the golden podium and later into the water with their blue flag.

The technology that uses successive frames to judge if the divers were indeed in tandem is amazing but better still is the technique that juxtaposes two different teams on the same frame to examine dives. The slightest errors, previously unnoticeable are magnified manifold and make the diver seem human. There is no room for a perfect ten with such technology around. But then it does push the divers closer towards perfection; which is good for the sport.

Tweet This“A New Favorite” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=284] was published Wednesday, August 18th, 2004 at 11:05 pm by Patrix, filed under Sports, and tagged as , , . Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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  • http://pseudofreud.blogspot.com pseudofreud

    U bet it is so graceful to watch this sport!!!

  • http://toinkdom1.rediffblogs.com toinks

    mmmm… yeah… just watched the chinese, woh bhi news mein, but hell… twas gud.

  • http://jstblgng.rediffblogs.com Aurora

    Patrix,
    What is NOT usually seen is the hardship is these performers go through for get that foot aligned perfectly with the other.

    Any idea what these perfectionists do for a living? I have heard a few of them in US working at Home Depot – salesmen to floor supervisor?

    I am not undermining the feats of an ‘Olympian’ but the other side of the tale. …

  • m

    “fallen in love with synchronized diving…….”…….whats wrong with regular females?????????? perhaps you meant divers??????

    ( one of those days when i have to get to you.)

  • http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix

    Pseudofreud – Yup!just doubles the grace of ordinary diving, doesn’t it?

    Toinks – Too bad if ur olympic viewing is restricted to news bytes.

    Aurora – we are being continuous hit with the human interest stories behind the athletes, some of them quite inspiring. I don’t see working at Home Depot as a bad way to make a living for athletes…gives them enough time for training that any other demanding job wouldn’t.

    M – LOL! that was an unintentional pun. But now if you find a perfect synchronized diving female, it would be like the proverbial sone pe suhaga :)

  • Aaar

    You seem to be crazy about swimming – u a regular swimmer? I’m for cutting down some medals from that category; too many permutations – 4* 100, 4* 200… and then all the different type of strokes. Maybe i’ll invent some tummy stroke for the next olympics:-)

  • http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix

    Aar – Not too crazy and certainly am no Channel swimmeer..enuf to save my own life. But yes, all these permutation and combinations give these Americans and Australians a distinct advantage except for a lone Katajima, who loves to “stick it” to them

  • http://dunwoody.rediffblogs.com Spaceman

    Haven’t spent much time on that event yet, plan to do so henceforth…quite surprisingly, the Chinese are faltering in gymnatics though

  • http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix

    Spaceman – Sadly, I think you may be late for the party. But gymnastics is still going strong..Chinese definitely feeling the pressure.

  • alpha

    katajima’s scream was too much. I thought some kind of jelly fish got into his undies. but yeah, too much swimming. I love to watch gymnastics and diving. The Indian tennis duo got thulped. anyways, why am I giving you updates… you are the official olympics guide for blogworld now.

    Are we going to get the skinny on Mohini Bhradwaj and why she faltered tommowrow?

  • http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix

    Alpha – kya kare, Olympics is a once in four year event..dunno where I would be then so better tolerate my rants now. Bechari Mo gets sidelined amongst her non-veg eating teammates. too bad she was sent up first always in the team event and performed the best.

  • alpha

    i think so too, Mo did really well. And no hype abt her in media.

  • http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix

    Alpha – Mo really impressed me..shez an old lady in gymnastics but yet holds her own…she deserves more attention.


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