Mexican diver Aranza Vázquez saw her Olympic dream turn into a nightmare after a disastrous performance in the 3-meter springboard event.
Vazquez, 21, had enjoyed a strong start to action on Thursday, as she placed seventh after her third dive and was on course to reach tomorrow’s 3m springboard final.
However, on his fourth dive of the day, he attempted a pair of backflips at a difficulty level of 3.0, but botched it after misjudging his takeoff.
Upon hitting the water, Vazquez landed in an unnatural position on his back in what appeared to be an extremely painful impact with the pool.
Vazquez immediately raised his hand in the air after exiting the water, which is diving code for wanting to speak to the referee.
Aranza Vázquez did not score any points after a disastrous jump in the 3-meter springboard event
Vazquez was in seventh position and on track to qualify for the final before his fourth attempt.
Vázquez made a mistake and suffered an extremely painful impact with the water on his back.
The Mexican tried to appeal the decision after claiming she had been distracted.
She later approached the officer and told him she had been distracted.
The referee then spoke to his assistant, before the latter decided that his appeal would be rejected after a lengthy discussion.
This meant that Vazquez, who also competed at the last Tokyo Olympics, earned a disastrous score of 0.0, ruining her hopes of advancing to the final.
The 21-year-old looked heartbroken and was later seen crying as her coach consoled her, before retreating backstage at the Olympic venue.
Reacting to the dive in a commentary for the BBC, pundit and former diver Leon Taylor said: “It was a disastrous dive, you could tell that was going to happen.
“She has her hand up, which means she wants to talk to the referee. If the referee deems the complaint valid, he will allow the match to resume.
‘Otherwise, if you don’t consider it valid, a bit like false starts in athletics, you can run under protest, but in jumping there is no such thing.’
Speaking about the “terrible” jump and the judges’ decision to reject her appeal, Taylor added: “She has a terrible take-off. The caveat is that when you do a jump like that, it counts.”
‘If you want to tempt fate you can say that something happened in the crowd that discouraged me.
‘I don’t know what the complaint is, so I can’t comment on its validity. I didn’t see any flashes, but I’m not on the diving board.
“It’s not really controversial, I think it’s an acceptable decision.”
Commonwealth silver medallist and former high jumper Tonia Couch added on the BBC: “It’s a real shame for her. It’s very tough.”
Had the referee determined that his complaints were valid, Vazquez would have been allowed to perform his jump again.
This happened at the 2012 London Olympics, when Tom Daley was allowed to jump again after it appeared that lightning had struck him as he was about to jump, which officials deemed had distracted him.
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Vazquez attempted to plead her case before the arbitrator, but unfortunately for her, the appeal was rejected.
The 21-year-old was devastated by the decision which meant she missed the final.
But unfortunately for Vázquez, she was not so lucky and fans expressed their sympathy for the Mexican on social media.
One of them said: “I feel sad for Aranza Vazquez, although she was very promising, it seems she fell off the diving board at the last minute. I hope she recovers from the disappointment soon!”
Another added: “Very sad for the Mexican… with this mistake she was out of the final…”, before another fan joked: “Dramatic and sad!! Zero for Ara Vázquez. It will cost her a ticket to the final!!!!”
