Diving at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris France
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Diving at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris France 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, France May 4, through July 27, 1924   Pictures of divers at the Olympic Games Albert White (USA) won the gold medal in the platform event. Eva Olliwier from Sweden finished 9th at the Paris 1924 Olympic Games in the platform event and finished 3rd in the same event at the 1920 Olympic Games in antwwerp. Helen Meany (USA) who finished in 5th Place Winners of the High dive event at the 1924 Olympic Games: from left to right: Clarence Pinkston (3rd) D.Fall (2nd) Albert White (1st) David Fall (USA) off the 10 meter platform doing a front 1 1/2. He placed 2nd. Clarence Pinkston USA placed 3rd in the 3 meter event at the 1924 Olympic Games. Peter Desjardins - USA at the 1924 Olympic Games. He placed 2nd. July 30, 1924 Paris France Olympic Games. Elizabeth Becker, the American girl diving star, has a good laugh with Clarence Pinkston, former Olympic diving champion. They later married. More pictures of Diving at the 1924 Olympic Games can be found in our 1924 Olympic Games Photo Album A bit of Olympic Diving History - 1924 Games Women Springboard competition- Thursday July 17, 1924: 17 divers representing 7 nations (Austria, U.S., France, Great Britain, Holland, Sweden and Czechoslovakia. The tryouts for the 1924 Olympic Games were hosted at the "Briercliff Lodge" which was a hotel on the Hudson river in New York. The rules had improved a lot since the last Olympic games. The American had helped write some of the rules. There were only 10 dives. They eliminated the post dives and there were six compulsory and four voluntary dives. You could do any dives you wanted to do., usually the compulsories were: the swan dive, the back dive, the traditional ones - backjack. No crazy dives like in the first Olympics. Actually the girl who placed 3rd did five dives of one type for voluntary dives (five gainers) She did a standing gainer also called a running standard in those days, a somersault, a one and a half and a pike..On the high dive event, Caroline Smith, who placed first, kept on getting 10s, and standing ovations. The only thing was that she could only do swan dives, and won by doing the same dive over and over again. The outfits received by the team were: White flannel uniforms (dresses for the girls) cloth hats, which were popular in those days (tight fitting hats), a little short evening dress with lots of fringes and beads (flappers). And for every day they had a navy blue uniform : skirt and blazer. In Paris they had a new stadium, by Montmartre. The only problem was that the divers had only one hour to practice. Because the American teams were the largest, we got the best hour, which was 11am to 12pm, because it was warmer! They practiced an hour a day and then officials would blow a whistle. The next country would be lined up ready to dive in. So, they were precise, on time, and ready to go, and the first group had to get out. Same as what happened in Anstwerp, the diving tower was in the pool with the swimmers So, they always had to have that look out watching out to see that we didn’t dive on anybody. After their event, divers had to get out of the pool and the pool area. They would never see the other countries practice. This time around the U.S. Diving/swim team actually had a diving coach. His name was Ernie Brandsten who was a Swedish diver who had come to the U.S. He was a coach at Stanford University. This time around the athletes stayed in a much better place. The residence was called Rocquencourt, and it belonged to a French nobleman who had been with Napoleon and his armies. And it was fully equipped for a family to live there, but they weren’t. .The American athletes leased it for the duration. There was a beautiful chateau there, just lovely, but the officials stayed in that. All the officials stayed at Rocquencourt. The girls stayed in the gatehouse belonging to the gatekeeper, and the men stayed at the top of the hill. They had built wooden square houses like barracks and the men slept there. The meals were served in the big dining room. Quiet a change from the 1920 Olympic Games! On the first night, the owner of the property saw a fire starting in between 2 wires. He tried to separate the wires but got electrocuted, in front of the athletes and died... The divers in the U.S. team always traveled with a saw, a hammer and the covering for the end of the board. Al White, who won diving in 1924, was also an engineer and was always making sire the leverage of the board was right. Divers just couldn't make changes to the board without approval.. but they would still sneak out at night to arrange it. 1924 Diving Medalists 3 meter events Women 1. Elzaberh Becker, USA Men 1. Albert White, USA 2. Aileen Riggin, USA 2. Peter Desjardins, USA 3. Caroline Fletcher, USA 3. Clarence Pinkston, USA Platform Women 1. Caroline Smith, USA Men 1. Albert White, USA 2. Elizabeth Becker, USA 2. David Fall, USA 2. Hjordis Topel, Sweden 3. Clarence Pinkston, USA More about diving at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, France 1924 Olympics Diving Information 1924 Olympics Diving Results 1924 Olympic Divers and Teams 1924 Olympics Diving Rules 1924 Olympic Diving Pictures Info on the Other Olympic Games View Other Olympic Years: 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008