SIMON BARNES'S OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
Sport is about the pursuit of perfection in the knowledge that perfection is unattainable. But in some sports it’s only just out of reach – at least for some. The Chinese diving team at the Paris Olympic Games is almosting perfection. Yesterday the women’s 10 metre-board synchro was two competitions in one: a feisty seven-way scrap for silver and bronze – and Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan trying conclusions with flawlessness. They failed by a fingertip. These days there are eight diving gold-medals available: China won seven in Tokyo and seven in Rio. Three down, five to go for the perfect eight-timer in Paris.
The British pair Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson got a spirited bronze, so jolly well done and all that. But sport offers higher things than jolly-goodness; higher things than partisanship too. The Chinese showdown with perfection is becoming an enthralling aspect of these Games.
The scandal over the drugs-testing of Chinese swimmers rumbles on: but no drug in the world helps you to perform three and half inward tucked somersaults and then enter the water clean as a dart, let alone do so in perfect formation with your partner.
Diving competitions begin with two compulsory dives: their simplicity gives them a special beauty, and all elite divers can do them very well indeed. The first dive performed by Chen and Quan left them a whopping seven points clear of the rest – a flawless demonstration of the difference between jolly-goodness and excellence. Excellence a fingertip from perfection.
