The Diving Dude Who Drowned the Competition

With the silver and bronze medals obtained from the springboard by Osmar Olvera in Paris 2024, the diver not only entered a select group of Mexican athletes with more than one medal in the same edition of the Olympic Games, he also placed himself halfway to becoming the biggest winner of medals in the great sporting event, a distinction belonging to the also diver Joaquín Capilla, who between London 1948 and Melbourne 1956, obtained a gold medal, a silver, and two bronze medals.

In the French capital, Olvera Ibarra broke a 40-year drought in which a Mexican had not climbed onto an Olympic podium on more than one occasion and another of almost seven decades in which a diver had not obtained such a distinction since Capilla himself did so on Australian territory, a performance that earned him the closure of a legacy in the diving pits and sport in general that to date remains unsurpassed.

“My sporting example is Joaquín Capilla, even more so because he is from my discipline, he is historic and the athlete with the most Olympic medals, he is in the history books, he is an inspiration and motivation for me to want to equal or surpass him by having the bar as high as he did, and I had it in mind in these Olympic Games, as always, and I knew that in Paris I could win two medals and be halfway to achieving it,” said Olvera, who despite his young age, already lived his second Olympic experience.

“In Tokyo 2020 I learned a lot about emotions that I had never experienced in a competition, and they not only helped me for Paris, also for world championships, as well as the Pan American Games in Chile, but I certainly learned a lot in that my first experience in a summer competition because it helped me,” he added.

The native of the country's capital explained that he experienced each medal differently: the silver in synchronized diving with Juan Manuel Celaya represented winning his first Olympic medal, while the individual bronze was his second medal, which increased his legacy at a national and world level, catapulting him to become a reality and stop being a promise in ornamental diving.

“What led us to that first medal was the training with Ma Jin, the three of us being so united and trying to do our best, as well as turning a result of eight into a nine and that made the difference; although we had little time to train, we managed to get on the podium and be close to gold; then I was very satisfied to have achieved a second medal in the same Olympic Games, it was a goal that I wanted because I knew I could achieve it,” he said.

“Today it is evident that I am a reality, that I am the present and the future of diving and sport in Mexico, so there is a long way to go with Osmar and I am going to give my best,” he added.

Also, outside the Olympic panorama, the gold medalist in Doha 2024 in the 1-meter springboard event expressed his desire to become world champion from 3 meters, his star event. “I have already fulfilled a dream, but the dream of being world champion in the 3-meter springboard is still there and that will always be present,” he said.

“For that, I have to go back to training and polish the details because next year there is the World Championship where the Chinese know that I am raising my level and that I am still very young, therefore, I have a lot to improve, there are areas of opportunity in all diving and they are the ones who will be worried, while I will be focused on improving with the help of my coach Ma Jin,” he concluded.