Greg Louganis became the first man to win back-to-back Olympic golds in both the springboard and platform diving events but not before surviving a life-threatening sporting accident on September 19, 1988.
Louganis collided with the springboard after his body had spun in two and a half somersaults and then unfolded to meet the water. The US diver who had won two golds at the previous Olympics, was competing in the preliminaries at the Seoul Olympic Games, later recounted he knew it “was going to be close because I could feel it in my own body. What I was concerned about was hitting my hands, so I came out wide so that the board would go by, and I wouldn’t hit it. I started coming out of the dive and I heard this big hollow thud…”
That “big hollow thud” was the back of Louganis’ head, which after a doctor applied four stitches to his wound, Louganis was able to return to the diving board and finish the round in third place.
Many such bizarre accidents happen in sports be it cricket, football, hockey, basketball or Formula One racing. It is no laughing matter when a gymnast falls off the vault after missing a step or stumbles on the carpet. Only a genuine athlete will know the agony a weightlifter undergoes when he or she gets buried attempting to snatch a bigger weight or a horse stops dead in her tracks in front of a hurdle in equestrian as happened to Mathilda Karlsson at the Tokyo Olympics. The list of such embarrassing incidents which are numerous are not recalled to ridicule the athlete concerned but to portray it as part and parcel of the game.
Champion Sri Lanka diver Dulanjan Kaushalya Fernando also endured the embarrassment of falling flat at the completion of his routine during the preliminaries of the 1m springboard event at the XXII Commonwealth Games. The BBC Sport One’s video clip splashing on the water went viral with some Sri Lankans even arguing that a novice diver would have performed better despite commentators describing it as an unfortunate incident and more concerned about his safety.
“I actually didn’t see anything. All I heard was the sound of people going about and the cameras flashing. I just didn’t know what to do. I kicked straight up and it went over,” recalled Fernando of his reverse two and half somersault which went wrong in his sixth dive.
“Something like that happens every time. It’s actually not a big deal for me because it always happens and the reason why Sri Lankan people made it a big deal was because it was on BBC One Sport,” he said.
He pointed out the fact that the winner of the 1m springboard event England’s Jack David Laugher had a failed dive in his first attempt during the 3m event preliminaries. “He made a terrible mistake and that was a failed dive. My one was not even a failed dive. He did a different dive,” said Fernando.
World champion and Olympic medallist Laugher had to perform forward 2½ somersaults and two twists but since performing a different dive got zero points was placed 15th at one stage.
“There is a huge screen in front of our face. That shows our name, country, and the dive we need to do. He did a completely different dive. That was a terrible mistake coming from an Olympic medallist,” he pointed out.
The Sri Lankan based in Melbourne started well on his debut at the Games. “It was good. I started well and going good. Of course, it was my first time in the Commonwealth Games. This was the first international event after six years. I was pretty nervous. The crowd was amazing. I didn’t expect that much of a crowd,” said the former Royal College all-round sportsman who moved to Australia in 2020 to pursue higher studies.
He performed the inward 1½ somersaults, inward 2½ somersaults from pike and tuck positions, back 1½ somersaults ½ twist and back 1½ somersaults from free and tuck positions and forward 2½ somersaults from pike before carrying over in the reverse 2½ somersaults from tuck position for which he got 9.00 points and also qualified to the finals with a total score of 118.15.
Asked whether this had happened to him before he said: “It happens every time, not only to me. I’ve done so many meets. I have gone like this before and no one said anything. All the international players have made so many mistakes but it’s just a sport.”
Although he was not mentally strong, the incident impacted him for the finals the next day.
“I saw the video after my preliminary round. I didn’t even care. These things happen but it impacted me for the finals. Everyone was sharing the video. I read the comments but there wasn’t a single bad comment on BBC Sport. Foreigners and everyone was talking good about me. All the Sri Lankan people were sharing. Some were concerned about my safety,” said Fernando, who improved his score to 232.5 in the finals.
He was hampered by a shoulder injury in the 3m springboard event where he failed to make it to the finals. “It was very competitive. I had a shoulder injury as well. It was half dislocated. Doctors said up to you if you are going to dive or not. Since I came all the way from Melbourne, I strapped my shoulder and did all my dives,” said Fernando who got a score of 217.95.
He shrugged off criticism of his diving incident. “There is nothing to laugh about. This is a sport. Every time this happens for Olympic athletes or medallists. This is how difficult diving is. Even Greg Louganis hit his head on the board. It was the same dive that I was doing,” said 23-year-old Fernando who has set his sights firmly on next year’s Asian Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics while completing his degree in Exercise and Sports Science at Deakin University.
“It was a crazy experience. After the 1m event so many coaches came and spoke to me. I had only one and half years of training. They were pretty impressed. They gave me so many inspirational talks. It was really good,” said Fernando wiser by the experience.