Two Silver Medals to Wrap up the Games
Santiago, October 25, 2023 – The diving events at the Pan-American Games in Santiago, Chile, came to a close on Wednesday evening with two silver medals for Canada. Nathan Zsombor-Murray finished second in the men’s 10m event. Pamela Ware and Mia Vallée did the same in the women’s synchronized 3m competition.
In the highly competitive 10m platform final, Zsombor-Murray held provisional first place for the first four rounds. As he headed into his sixth and final dive, the athlete from Pointe-Claire was 12.65 points ahead of Mexico’s Randal Willars. Zsombor-Murray capped off the competition in fine style, earning 78.40 points on his last attempt and bringing his total score to 476.15.
A few moments later, however, Willars went all-in, performing a dive with the highest degree of difficulty of the entire competition (4.1), and his score of 94.30 brought his final total to 479.40, enabling him to edge out the Canadian. Kenny Zamudio, also of Mexico, completed the podium with 451.60 points, just ahead of Canada’s Rylan Wiens (449.15).
“It was really close at the end, so I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed because of that. I know I could have executed some of my dives better. We didn’t have a lot of time to train for this competition, so considering the circumstances, it’s pretty good. I didn’t hold back. I gave it my all,” explained the silver medallist as he left the podium.
Zsombor-Murray, who was feeling a combination of nervousness and confidence during the final, believes his fifth dive, for which he earned his lowest score, was the deciding factor. “With a little more vertical and a little less of a splash, I would have had gold.”
Wiens also had mixed emotions after the event.
“Fourth place is always a bit difficult, but I’m very happy with how I competed. I only started training again three weeks ago, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season plays out,” said the athlete from Saskatoon, who had been sidelined since May due to a back injury.
“I didn’t know if I’d be coming here, or how things would progress, but I really wanted to be here, so I’m super happy to have finished with a silver medal and a fourth place!”
The two Canadian men won silver in the synchronized 10m event on Sunday.
A spectacular comeback by Ware and Vallée
Pamela Ware and Mia Vallée made a spectacular comeback in the synchronized 3m event, finishing second with 280.65 points. Following their third of five dives, they held provisional sixth place, twelve points away from a spot on the podium. However, the Canadian duo refused to give up. On their final two attempts, they turned things around, earning the highest scores of the entire round and edging out Hailey Hernandez and Jordan Skilken of the USA (279.06) by 1.59 points.
Arantxa Chavez and Paola Pineda won the gold medal with a score of 285.48.
“Mentally, it’s really hard to recover after you’ve messed up a dive, so I’m very proud of us!” explained Ware. “I think our last two dives were our best final dives of the competition. I wasn’t stressed, and I knew we could climb back up with those two dives, which are really good. That’s why we save them until the end.”
The Québécoise, who had already collected two gold medals this week, said she did not give much thought to the possibility of winning a third gold medal and departing Santiago with a perfect record.
“We’re feeling both happy and disappointed, since it was our third dive that caused us to lose out on the gold medal,” continued Ware, adding that their synchronization was their strongest element.
Vallée stated that she felt more confident in the company of her teammate than she had yesterday, in the individual event.
“This is my second silver medal of these Games, which feels amazing after the past year, where I didn’t perform at my best,” admitted Vallée, who also won silver in the 1m event.
The Canadian diving team thus concludes the Pan-American Games with a total of eight medals: two gold, five silver and one bronze.