Hernandez and Palmer Advance to Semifinals in 3 Meter

Both U.S. divers advanced from the qualifying round to the semifinals today in the Women’s 3-Meter springboard competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Out of the 27 divers in the competition, 18 advanced to the next round. The top U.S. finisher of the day was 18-year-old Hailey Hernandez in sixth place with a total score of 309.55. Palmer ended the day in 15^th with a score of 279.10.

Hernandez started the competition in 17^th after her first dive but quickly found her rhythm and remained in the top 10 for the remainder of her list scoring mostly 8’s and 7.5’s on her dives. Her best dive of the day was her second dive, a forward three- and one-half somersault tuck in which she scored straight 8’s for a total score of 67.20.

“I’m feeling incredible I’m super happy with how my preliminary went and I know I still have some things to work on and areas to improve but I feel confident heading into semis,” said Hernandez.

Palmer had an uncharacteristically off-day scoring lower than expected on her second and third dive. She continued to fight, making up ground on her fourth dive, a forward three- and one-half somersaults pike, scoring 6.5’s and 7’s.

“I knew I just needed to fight until the end, I think that’s just our sport,” said Palmer, “You can come back with better dives and really the biggest thing is just to fight until the very end because anything can happen. Just like today, it wasn’t really the list I was hoping to come out with but I knew that prelims is always gonna be a little shaky but I am just really grateful to have made it through to semifinals to be able to give it a better go.”

The semifinals will take place tomorrow, July 31, 2021 at 3:00 pm local time/ 2:00 am EST. The event will be broadcast live on the USA Network as well as streamed on NBCOlympics.com.