How to... dive

Woody told Buzz Lightyear that flying was just falling with style, but the Toy Story cowboy could have been talking about diving. On Monday, Tom Daley won his fifth Olympic medal in the men’s synchronised 10m platform. In the last round he and his partner Noah Williams went for a forward 4 1/2, the same dive as their Chinese rivals. The dive doesn’t look fancy, but it’s devilishly hard. Walking in tandem from the back of the board, it’s then two or three hops, a leap off the edge and into the air. The divers bend their legs at the knees, tucking their thighs into their chest with their hands. With that they spin forward ferociously – with pained facial expressions – before opening up their body halfway through the fifth rotation. Unless they shank the landing, divers meet the pool vertically with their hands first, then their heads, and finally their legs. The aim is to make as little splash as possible and be a mirror image of your partner. The Brits fell with aplomb.