Downs & Duncan, Schnell & Parratto book tickets for Paris on the second day of the US Olympic diving qualification

Courtesy: USA Diving

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee – Tyler Downs (Ballwin, Missouri/West Lafayette, Indiana) and Greg Duncan (Oakton, Va./West Lafayette, Ind.) emerged victorious in a close men’s race. in the synchronized final in the 3-meter swimming and thus secured an Olympic place. Delaney Quick (Tucson, Arizona) and Jessica Parratto (Dover, NH/Bloomington, Ind.) qualified for the women’s 10-meter synchronized swimming as the U.S. Olympic team trials in diving continued Tuesday.

Downs and Duncan finished the race with 811.41 points over two lists of jumps to the edge Andrew Capobianco (Holly Springs, NC/Bloomington, Indiana) And Quinn Henninger (Denver, Colorado/Bloomington, Indiana) by just 2.37 points. Downs and Duncan led by 0.15 points after the preliminary rounds in the afternoon.

Downs is competing in the Olympics for the second time, while Duncan has qualified for the first time.

They went into the final round with a 20-point lead, but Henninger and Capobianco finished their list with 95.76 points for the high-level 4 ½ forward somersaults, putting pressure on the leaders. Downs and Duncan responded with 78.12 points for a 3 ½ forward somersaults, just enough to stay at the top of the leaderboard.

Downs said he was unaware of how close the competition was.

“I just did my thing. Of course, we knew by listening to the crowd whether we were good or not, but I wasn’t looking at the scoreboard, so I didn’t know where we were or what we needed,” Downs said.

Duncan also tried to stay calm at that moment.

“I tried to focus as best I could on the practice notes that we have been working on every day for the past eight to 10 years and to remain as calm and collected as possible because the atmosphere is very emotional,” Duncan said.

Schnell and Parratto, the silver medalists in Tokyo, easily qualified for further Olympic Games with 607.14 points in their two lists in the women’s synchronized 10-meter diving, winning the heats by more than 100 points.

For Parratto it will be the third Olympic Games and for Schnell the second.

“I try not to look at the scoreboard, but I think we knew we had a chance. We just wanted to get five good jumps. There were even some jumps where I wanted to improve and get a little better. Obviously it was good enough and a really good and solid last jump for us,” Parratto said. “It was just all the emotions of the last three years coming together and honestly I just didn’t expect to be where I am now. Going to third games is just crazy.”

Parratto had planned to retire after Tokyo, but Schnell encouraged her to try again and the duo reunited in 2023.

“(Delaney) brought me out of retirement. A few months of snooping around. Of course, it was my decision and I was happy to come out of retirement just for the synchronized competition because it’s such a great event. I wanted to try it again with Delaney by my side. It was all so perfect. It was as much a surprise to me as I was surprising myself,” Parratto said.

Schnell will try to qualify individually starting Friday.

“In sport, you always have to expect the unexpected. For me, that was a sigh of relief. Now I can go into the singles, get some fresh air and stay calm. We’ve already completed one event and I can relax and breathe,” said Schnell.

The 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Qualifiers – Diving run through June 23. On Wednesday, divers will have a day off from competition before the focus shifts to individual events. Preliminaries and semifinals in the women’s 3-meter and men’s 10-meter will take place on Thursday.

2024 US Olympic Team Qualification – Diving Results
June 18, 2024 – Knoxville, Tennessee.

Women’s 10-meter synchronized final
1. Jessica Parratto/Delaney Schnell, 607.14; 2. Gabrielle Filzen/Bailee Sturgill, 494.13; 3. Emilie Moore/Kaylee Bishop, 477.39; 4. Katerina Hoffman/Abigail Knapton, 458.43

Synchronized swimming 3 meters, men
1. Greg Duncan/Tyler Downs, 811.41; Capobianco/Quinn Henniger, 809.04; 3. Jack Ryan/Grayson Campbell, 795.51; 4. Maxwell Miller/Luke Seat, 689.46; 5. Zachary Welsh/Jake Welsh, 671.04; Joshua Sollenberger/Nathaniel Grannis, 665.43