Gibson and Palmer Place Fourth in 3-Meter Synchro at World Championships

Krysta Palmer (Reno, Nevada) and Alison Gibson (Austin, Texas) finished fourth in women’s synchronized 3-meter Wednesday at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Their finish secured a quota spot for Team USA to compete in that event at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Palmer and Gibson scored 279.30 points in their first international competition together since the Olympic Games in Tokyo. On Wednesday, they scored 60 points or higher on all three of their optional dives, including 68.82 points on their front 3 ½ pike. They were the only team in the contest to perform a front 2 ½ with two twists, and they came through with 60.18 points on the difficult dive.

China’s Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen scored 323.43 points for gold, while the Australian team of Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith finished second at 300.45. Great Britain’s Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen picked up bronze with 281.70 points.

The top four countries not already qualified for Paris secured Olympic quota spots in the event. Joining the United States and Australia in punching their tickets to Paris were Ukraine and Germany. China, Great Britain, Italy and France had previously qualified.

The U.S. has now secured quota spots in three of the four synchronized diving events, with a chance to pick up another on Thursday, when Joshua Hedberg (Noblesville, Ind.) and Carson Tyler (Moultrie, Ga./Bloomington, Ind.) compete in men’s synchronized 10-meter.

Thursday’s competition also includes Sarah Bacon (Indianapolis, Ind./Minneapolis, Minn.) and Hailey Hernandez (Southlake, Texas/Austin, Texas) in the women’s 3-meter preliminaries. The U.S. already has its maximum two Olympic quota spots in the individual women’s 3-meter event.

All quota spots are earned for the country, not specific divers. The U.S. Olympic Team will be selected at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in June.

Diving events at the World Aquatics Championships wrap up Saturday.