Diving as a pastime developed in Europe in the seventeenth century as a result of the popularity of gymnastics. Gymnasts, particularly the Northern Europeans, often practised their acrobatics into water; just as today’s aerial skiers practise their routines into water when snow is unavailable. Diving became a sport in its own right by the middle of the nineteenth century.

Men’s platform diving first appeared on the Olympic program in St Louis 1904 and springboard diving was added in London 1908. Platform diving was one of the aquatic events introduced for women in Stockholm 1912. Women’s springboard diving debuted in Antwerp 1920 and the gold and silver medallists were two 14-year-olds from America, Aileen Riggin and Helen Wainwright. Marjorie Gestring also of the United States was 13 years old when she won the women’s springboard in Berlin 1936 and she remains the youngest individual gold medallist at the Olympic Games. In Sydney in 2000, synchronised diving events off the springboard and platform, were introduced for both men and women. 

The greatest divers in Olympic history have been Patricia McCormick and Greg Louganis from the United States and Fu Mingxia from China. McCormick won the women’s springboard-platform double in Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956, and Greg Louganis who did likewise in the men’s events in Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988. Louganis, who missed the Olympics in Moscow 1980 because of the American boycott, also finished second in the platform diving in Montreal 1976. In the last two decades, the Chinese divers, with Fu in the vanguard, have become a world force in the sport. Fu won the women's platform in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996 and the women's springboard in Atlanta and Sydney. She also finished second on the women's synchronised springboard Sydney.

In 1908, Reginald “Snowy” Baker, who won a silver medal in boxing at these Games, became the first Australian to compete in Olympic diving when he placed 22^nd in the springboard.

From 1912 until Paris in 1924, the plain high diving for men was also held.  This event was a straight dive off the platform with no twists or turns, hence the description “plain”.  Australia's Richmond “Dick” Eve won this event in Paris.

At the Sydney 2000 Games Australia returned to the dais in Olympic diving after more that three quarters of a century with bronze medals being won by Robert Newbery and Dean Pullar in the men’s synchronised springboard and Rebecca Gilmore and Loudy Tourky in the women’s synchronised platform.

In Athens 2004 Australia with six medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze) was the second most powerful diving nation, behind China with nine medals. Chantelle Newbery's gold medal (ahead of Loudy Tourky with the bronze) in the women's platform was Australia's first Olympic diving success since Dick Eve in 1924. Newbery's husband Robert won two more bronze medals in the men's synchronised events to bring his Olympic medal tally to three. Thus, Chantelle and Robert Newberry became the first Australian husband and wife to win medals at the same Olympic Games.

At the 2008 Games in Beijing, 16-year-old Melissa Wu teamed up with Briony Cole to win silver in the synchronised platform behind Xin Wang and Ruolin Chen from the all-conquering team of Chinese women divers. One of the greatest Australian stories of the Games came from the diving in the form of Matthew Mitcham. Mitcham produced the highest scoring dive in Olympic history to win the 10-metres platform event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In doing so he denied China a clean sweep of all eight diving events on offer in Beijing’s Water Cube, and became Australia’s first male diving gold medallist since 1924. 

For all individual events, divers select from a number of set dives that have been rated according to their degree of difficulty, or create their own dives which are rated according to a set formula. The elements of the dive that are judged are: approach, take-off, elevation, execution and entry into water.

Divers in individual events are scored out of 10 by seven judges. The highest and lowest of the seven scores are eliminated, the five remaining scores are multiplied by the dive’s degree of difficulty and, finally that figure is multiplied by 0.6.

In synchronised diving, the pairs must perform a combination of dives: some have set a degree of difficulty; others have an average of the two degrees of difficulty. A panel of nine judges score the dives. Four of the judges assess the execution of the individual dives; the other five assess the synchronisation of the divers.  

In individual events the men complete six dives and women five. After each preliminary event, the field is reduced to 18. These divers then compete in a semi-final, after which their preliminary and semi-final scores are added to find the top 12 divers. These 12 then compete in the final. The gold medallist is the diver with the highest combined semi-final and final score. (The original preliminary score does not count).

In synchronised diving, the pairs compete in an outright final, each pair doing five dives.

• Mitcham recovers from shocker to win national title
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• Lethargic Mitcham struggles in 3m final
• Last dive costs Mitcham gold
• Mitcham fires ominous platform warning
• Late miss proves costly for Wu and Cole in Rome