Canada's McKay and Miller just miss podium in women's synchronized diving

PARIS — Caeli McKay didn’t want to relive the pain of barely missing the podium again.

Unfortunately for the Canadian diver, history repeated itself.

Calgary’s McKay and partner Kate Miller of Ottawa placed fourth in the women’s 10-metre synchronized event on Wednesday at the Paris Olympics, finishing just over five points away from the bronze.

Three years ago at the Tokyo Games, McKay and partner Meaghan Benfeito were half a point off the podium.

"Fourth place was heartbreaking by point-five, this was five points at least, it wasn't as close. But I can't really say much more,” McKay said while holding back tears.

"If we had these five dives and we were in fifth, I think we would feel maybe a little different than in fourth. Fourth is the hardest place to be at the Olympics. But I think we’re so proud.”

McKay and Miller scored a cumulative 299.22 points over five dives. Chinese duo Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan dominated the competition with 359.10 points. North Korea’s Jo Jin Mi and Kim Mi Rae came in second (315.90) and Great Britain's Andrea Spendolini Sirieix and Lois Toulson rounded out the podium (304.38).

China won seven of the eight diving gold medals at the Tokyo Games and is 3-for-3 so far in Paris.

McKay and Miller were in third before the final round of dives. The British pair then performed their best dive of the competition, while the Canadians seemed to lack synchronization in their last dive and slipped off the podium.

"I think all of our dives were relatively good," McKay said. "There were no big misses or anything like that. It's just the way that things played out was that the Brits ended up on top."

Miller, only 19, could hardly hide her disappointment.

"I'm obviously upset about the outcome of the competition, I know that we can do way better. And we were diving really well," she said. "I didn't really care that I was a lot younger, I wanted to go out there and win a medal."

McKay was hampered by an ankle injury at the Tokyo Games and said her experience since arriving in Paris is completely different.

Unlike three years ago, she’s the most experienced diver on Canada’s team despite being only 25.

"Last time, I barely was able to even dive, and this one I was able to completely take it in," she said. "I was able to enjoy it. I was able to appreciate being with Kate and experiencing her first Olympics.

"She's one of my best friends, so it's nice to be able to be there together and have another shoulder to cry on together."

McKay and Miller will be back in action for the individual 10-metre platform event. The preliminaries and semifinals take place on Aug. 5, followed by the final the next day.

They might be a bit better prepared by then. McKay noted it wasn’t easy to start their journey in Paris Games with a final. Unlike individual diving events, synchronized events do not have preliminaries or semifinals.

"I can't even explain how hard it is to go into that," she said. "So for prelims I think it'll be nice to have experienced this, have an idea of how the competition rolls, about how the adrenalin is, what the crowd's like, what the judging's like.

"Then just regroup, refocus, and do what we can do on that day."

If she succeeds, McKay might finally experience the joy of an Olympic podium rather than the disappointment of fourth place.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version of this story had the wrong hometown for Rylan Wiens.