The origins of modern diving date back to 17th Century Europe, particularly Germany and Sweden, when diving began its evolution from gymnastics. In summertime, gymnasts would move their equipment to the beaches and acrobatics over the water became a part of their activities.
Competitive diving began in the late 19th Century, the first club being formed in Germany in 1840.
The first international competitions began in 1882, also in Germany, and over the following decades organised diving spread to Britain and the USA, where bridge and artistic leaping began, but was soon stopped due to the high number of serious accidents.
Diving was included as part of the swimming program in the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, USA, and was also included in the London Olympics four years later.
In 1914 the world governing body of amateur aquatic sports, FINA, (Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur,) met in Budapest, and the German proposals for springboard diving, and the Swedish proposals for highboard diving, were adopted as internationally binding rules.
In 1902 the first diving association was formed in England
Earliest competitions had just one dive, a simple plunge, similar to that used by swimmers, which later evolved into the dive we would now call a forward straight dive.
In the 1920s the pike and tuck positions were permitted, to facilitate completing somersaults and dive from lower boards.
The FINA International Diving Committee was formed in 1928, and the following year, it published a new table, which divided all dives into five groups for springboard and six groups for platform diving, and this system still survives today.
The earliest diving boards consisted of planks of wood covered in coconut matting to prevent divers from slipping. They were not very springy and there was no standard board, which meant disadvantages to visiting competitors.
Ernst Brandsten introduced a more flexible board with a moveable fulcrum, which lasted from the 1920s to the 1940s and this was followed by the use of aluminium in the 1960s.
Ray Rude developed the Duraflex Board made from a single piece of aluminium, and in 1969, the Mariflex double tapered board was introduced.
In 1994, the degree of difficulty of each dive was defined on a logical basis, allowing specified contributions for the approach, the flight position, number of half twists and number of half somersaults.
In 2000, synchronized diving made its Olympic debut as a full medal sport, the first addition to the diving schedule since 1920.
Todays divers are able to benefit from modern technology and knowledge. On the boards they can utilise video, and high speed film, to analyse their performance, and in the water they have the benefit of bubble machines (invented by Canadian Herb Flewwelling in the 1960s), enabling them to learn new dives without the risk of injury. Out of the water, elite divers enjoy the support of physiotherapists, sports psychologists and a greater understanding of biomechanics when tackling somersaults and twists.
Given divings history, it is not surprising that the dominant nations in the early years were Sweden and Germany. Later, America became the outstanding nation. Today China is the leader, with Australia ranked second.
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