Benfeito, McKay finish fourth in women’s 10m synchro
Meaghan Benfeito and Caeli McKay finished fourth in the women’s 10m synchro event on Tuesday at the Olympic Games. The Canadian divers finished with 299.16 points missing the bronze medal spot by just .54 points.
“Obviously disappointed, I can’t lie about that,” said Benfeito. “Everyone would be disappointed by .54 from a medal.”
The Canadians were second through three dives but missed on the back three-and-a-half somersaults scoring 51.48 and dropping to the fifth position.
“We missed. We were very confident on all of our dives, standing on the tower,” said McKay. “We know how to do them. That’s the way diving goes, but we gave it everything.
Benfeito (Laval, QC) won bronze in the women’s 10m synchro event at the 2012 and 2016 Games. McKay (Calgary, AB) was competing in her first Olympic Games.
McKay, 22, competed in Tokyo despite suffering an ankle injury during training three weeks ago.
“I couldn’t jump three weeks ago, I couldn’t walk three weeks ago,” she said. “Just to be diving, to be here, to be an Olympian now, I’m just super proud. We’ve put in a lot of work in the past five years. I’m just really proud how close we were to third. Of course it was our goal to be on top of the podium, but just to be here, honestly, right now, I could be watching the Olympics at home right now, but I have a great support system beside me and I think this doesn’t devalue us at all. I think we value our journey and what we’ve been through.”
China’s Yuxi Chen and Jiaqi Zhang won gold with a cumulative score of 363.78. Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell of the U.S. took silver with a score of 310.80 and Mexico’s Gabriela Agundez Garcia and Alejandra Orozco Loza edged out the Canadians with 299.70 points to take home bronze.
Schedule, Results, Team Information, and Previous Olympic Statistics
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Diving Plongeon Canada (DPC) was established in 1967 as a not-for-profit organization to promote the growth and awareness of the sport in this country. As a member of FINA, the world’s governing body of aquatic sports, DPC contributes to the development of globally accepted standards of excellence in diving and supports the rules and regulations of international competition. Representing nine provincial diving associations, 67 local diving clubs and close to 4,000 high-performance athletes, DPC shares a national commitment to advance the art and sport of diving and to position Canada as the number one diving nation in the world. For information, visit www.diving.ca.
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