China achieves historic clean sweep in Olympic diving

China completed a historic clean sweep of all eight Olympic diving gold medals after Cao Yuan won the men's 10m platform final in Paris on Saturday.

The diving powerhouse went one better than at the Tokyo Games three years ago when they claimed seven of the eight golds.

Defending champion Cao was a class above his rivals.

He finished on 547.50 points, with Japan's Rikuto Tamai on 507.65 to claim silver and Briton Noah Williams (497.35) the bronze medal.

Cao was the first to retain his Olympic 10m crown since American Greg Louganis in Seoul in 1988.

After three of the six-dive finals, Cao was being hard-pressed by Japanese teenager Tamai.

But Tamai, only 17, flopped on his fifth and penultimate effort to clear Cao's path to the top of the podium and a place in his country's diving history.

The Beijing-born 29-year-old was securing his fourth Olympic gold in all after also winning the men's 3m springboard at Rio 2016 and the men's synchronized 10m platform title in London four years earlier.

It wasn't all smiles though in the Chinese corner on the final day of the diving as world champion Yang Hao had a bad day at the office, trailing in last of the 12 finalists over 150 points behind his compatriot.

That was a rare reverse though for China and for those left in their wake at the 2024 Games there was nothing but awe at their rivals' perfection in Paris.

"I'm always clapping their dives," said Britain's Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix after taking bronze to the teenage duo of Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi in the women's synchronized 10m platform.

"Just watch their dives -- they go in the water like they are sleeping" she marveled.

The Olympic diving programme swelled to its current programme of eight finals at the 2000 Sydney Games with the inclusion of the synchronized version for the springboard and platform events.