List of Olympic Diving Rules

In the sport of Olympic diving, there are many rules that dictate what kinds of dives an athlete can do and how they are allowed to do them. The rules also lay out how many dives an athlete must complete to qualify and compete in diving competitions. The different kinds of diving also have rules that are unique to them.

Competition Rules

• Divers must submit a dive list of their chosen dives before competition. They are not allowed to change their dives once they submit this list.
• Divers are not allowed to start an approach to a dive and then stop. This is called a balk and leads to a two point deduction on the next dive completed. If a diver balks twice on the same dive, they will get zero points for a “failed dive.”

Springboard Diving Rules

• Competitors in the men’s competition must complete 6 dives.
• Competitors in the women’s competition must complete 5 dives. 
• Divers have to complete at least one dive from each of the 5 different categories of dives (forward, backward, reverse, inward, twisting)
• Competitors cannot repeat any dives; they all must be unique from one another.
• There is no limit to what the difficulty of each dive needs to be.

Platform Diving Rules

• Competitors in the men’s competition must complete 6 dives.
• Competitors in the women’s competition must complete 5 dives.
• For the men’s competition each of the dives has to be from the different platform diving categories (forward, backward, reverse, inward, twisting, armstand).
• Every dive must be performed from the 10-meter platform.

Synchronized Springboard and Platform Diving Rules

• Competitors in the men’s competition must complete 6 dives.
• Competitors in the women’s competition must complete 5 dives.
• The first two dives of the competition must be at a difficulty of 2.0.
• There is no limit to the degree of difficulty that the rest of the dives must be.
• The dives must be from at least four different categories: one dive must be started facing forward and another must be one that starts from a non-standing position (such as an armstand)