Tokyo, Japan- The first day of the 2021 FINA World Cup kicked off in Tokyo, Japan with the Women’s Three Meter Synchronized Diving Competition. USA Diving’s Kassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon took to the boards and qualified fifth for finals with a score of 273.24.

Despite Cook suffering through a shoulder injury and dropping to ninth after their second dive, the duo climbed their way back with their fifth and final dive, a forward dive with 3 ½ somersaults pike position, being their best scoring dive at 65.70. They ended the competition with a score of 278.49, which put them ahead of Great Britain’s Katherine Torrance and Grace Reid’ 276.

“This year has brought nothing but adversity for Kassidy and me,” said Bacon, “It all started with the postponement of the Olympic Games and then of World Cup. We get to World Cup, and more adversity hits when Kassidy is dealing with a shoulder injury and cannot do dives to her head. We kept good spirits through it all and really just tried to lift each other up and keep smiling the whole way. Once we knew we secured the Olympic Quota spot a flood of emotions came from the both of us. I’m just so proud of Kassidy for pushing through and continuing to fight through the pain and stand by my side in order to secure that quota spot.”

In the Men’s 10 Meter Synchronized Competition, Brandon Loschiavo and David Dinsmore qualified fourth heading into the finals. Despite having several fantastic dives in the finals, their best scoring dive being an inward 3 ½ somersaults tuck position, their overall score of 369.18 earned them eighth place.

We had some highs and lows today,” said Dan Laak, High Performance Director for USA Diving, Kassidy and Sarah pushed through their last dive with every ounce of determination they could find to make sure they brought home that spot. We are extremely proud of the courage they exhibited today. David and Brandon didn’t have their best dives today, but they came to Tokyo ready to compete and while they didn’t get the results they were hoping for, we are proud of them and the effort they have put in during the months leading up to this event in the face of uncertainty. We have five more events to focus on and we’re looking towards the upcoming days.”

The 2021 FINA World Cup continues tomorrow with the Women’s 10 Meter Synchronized Competition and Men’s Three Meter Synchronized Competition where 2016 Olympic Silver medalist, Mike Hixon will pair up with 2021 NCAA Champion Andrew Capobianco to represent USA Diving.

All preliminary events will be live streamed on fina.org as well as their YouTube Channel. The finals will be broadcast live on the Olympic Channel.

USA Diving will be covering this event live, so be sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

For additional information on the FINA World Cup, visit fina.org.

For media inquiries, please contact kelly@usadiving.org

Cook and Bacon Secure Women’s Three Meter Synchro Olympic Quota Spot for U.S. on First Day of FINA World Cup

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