Badly missed dive costs Meaghan Benfeito, Caeli McKay an Olympic medal in synchronized 10-metre platform

Opinion

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This article was published 27/07/2021 (1527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TOKYO—Both Canadian women botch their dive and both Mexican women celebrate.

They chortle, they pump fists, they hug.

Prematurely, to be sure. Shortly thereafter, though, the senoritas would step onto the podium as ecstatically bronzed, having lifted themselves from an early seventh-place hole out of eight teams in Tuesday’s synchronized 10-metre platform diving competition — a teensy 0.54 making all the difference between a medal and fourth place for the devastated tandem of Meaghan Benfeito and Caeli McKay.

The Canadian duo had silver in their sights, with — let’s be honest here — not a prayer’s chance of overtaking the otherworldly Chinese pairing, Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi, who put up a trio of perfect 10s on one of their dives. Nobody was going to touch them because the diminutive Chinese twosome simply never make mistakes.

But the display of poor sportsmanship, of gloating over the failure of fellow athletes, was astonishing. Or a rare manifestation of honesty, allowing the mask of Olympic camaraderie and mutual courtesy to slip, revealing the nakedly self-interested hunger beneath.

Gabriela Agundez Garcia and Alejandra Orozco Loza will leave Tokyo with bronze bling around their neck. The Canadians will spent a long time regretting what might have been, especially the veteran Benfeito, 32, who admits to “getting a little old, it’s rough on the body.”

So close. “Yet so far,” sighed Benfeito.

Then she tittered. “I’m in shock, honestly. I giggle when I’m in a shock. I can’t believe it. Obviously disappointed, I can’t lie about that. Anyone would be disappointed by .54 from a medal.”

Benfeito, from Laval, Que., won back-to-back Olympic bronze medals in 10-metre synchro with former partner Roseline Filion. In Rio, Benfeito also claimed bronze in 10-metre individual diving. When Filion retired after the Rio Games, Benfeito took up with McKay, 10 years her junior, recognizing their diving styles were simpatico. McKay, who had idolized Benfeito, jumped at the chance after moving from Calgary to Montreal.

In five years together, they have climbed the sports heights, silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, gold at the 2019 Pan American Games, gold at the Diving World Cup just this past May.

Benfeito is certainly not bored with Olympic bronze but she had aspired to much this time around, with McKay. Instead, nothing. Well, apart from the gratification of the journey to Tokyo, which had been exceedingly difficult as McKay suffered a severe ankle sprain while dryland training for the Olympic trials in June. Landed toes down. It was a race against the clock to rehab the ankle in time for the Games. Three weeks ago, she could scarcely walk. And their entire training regimen was in chaos.

They had pre-qualified for the 10-metre platform but McKay had to kiss the individual tower event goodbye.

At those trials, Mitch Geller, the Dive Canada chief technical director, had observed: “There’s no guarantees but it looks to me like there’s more than a glimmer of hope because it may just come down to dealing with the pain, which they can address.”

McKay swallowed the grimace and soldiered on.

“I’m going to cry now,” she announced to reporters in the mixed zone after Tuesday’s competition. And then she did exactly that, scrunching up one sodden tissue after another.

“Just to be with her is a big thing for me. It’s been my childhood dream. I moved my life to be right here, right now, with her.” McKay said, looking at Benfeito, who gathered her in an embrace. “Just to be diving here, to be an Olympian. I’m just super-proud. We’ve put in a lot of work these past five years. We’ve been through a lot. We’ve had more curves thrown at us than people know.

“I wouldn’t trade our journey for anything.”

Except, doubtless, another stab at that fourth dive (of five), a back 3 1/2-somersault dive in the tuck position, with a 3.3 degree of difficulty, the toughest dive by any of the women in the event.

“We just missed,” McKay said

Indeed, they both missed it, badly, a kind of inverse wayward unison —McKay went short and Benfeito went over, completely out of whack when they punched the water. If either had executed the dive cleanly, that would have put them safely in the bronze zone. “I’m mad at myself for missing that dive,” said Benfeito.

Instead of a plump score, the dive garnered only 51.48. Not even a fine 75.84 on the final high-difficulty dive — back 2 1/2 with 1 1/2 twists — could undo their fate. They slid into fifth, then up to fourth, with a cumulative score of 299.16.

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“That’s just the way that diving goes,” sniffed McKay, through a wobbly smile. “Sometimes you miss.”

Americans Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell took silver at 310.80, with the Chinese on their own planet with a golden 363.78.

“I’m extremely proud of this girl,” Benfeito said of McKay. “She gave everything and that’s what I’m most proud of. You win some or you learn. It’s never a loss. It’s never a failure.

“We managed to battle it out to the end.”

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno