No regrets after a second narrow miss
Abel ‘leaving Rio with a smile’ after high-pressure performance
There are countless RIO DE JANEIRO Olympic stories that end in tears: the medal ripped from the athlete’s hand in the final moments, the years of training that result in a near-miss, the emotional burst when it becomes clear there will be no podium, no flag, no anthem.
But for Jennifer Abel, there was, instead, no regrets.
In a bronze-medal position after four of five rounds in the women’s three-metre springboard final, Abel was passed by a tremendous dive from Italian Tania Cagnotto, who scored an 81.0 — the thirdhighest score of 60 dives in the final — to put the pressure on Abel with her final attempt.
The 24-year-old from Montreal over-rotated slightly on her back two-and-a-half somersault dive, scoring a 69.0 when she needed 76.0 to get back into medal position. She needed a disaster from one of the two Chinese who were one-two after the first five dives, and she didn’t get it. Abel finished in fourth. Shi Tingmao took gold, He Zi took silver. Canada’s Pamela Ware finished in seventh place.
It was Abel’s second fourth-place finish at Rio 2016. She and Ware had that result in the synchro three-metre springboard event. But despite coming as close as possible to medalling, Abel was far from despondent.
“I was very happy with my dives tonight,” she said. “I know I wanted to bring back two medals to Canada but at the same time the story behind my performance tonight is way more important.”
She said she knew the fifth dive wasn’t her best, but she had remained hopeful after hitting the water.
“Of course, you always hope. You never know what’s going to happen,” she said. “But at the same time, if I was third or fourth. What matters for me at the end is that I was able to fight. It was very hard to stay focused and not crack under the pressure and I didn’t today, and that’s what’s more important for me.”
For a diving competition, the event had an unusual amount of ancillary drama. First, there was the water: notoriously dark green and murky for several days as Rio organizing officials first insisted it was no big deal and later admitted a maintenance worker had dumped 80 litres of hydrogen peroxide into it nine days ago, effectively neutralizing the chlorine and allowing organic compounds to flourish.
Officials had drained the neighbouring water polo pool and relocated that event but the best they could do with the diving pool was change filters and hope for improvement. It was better on Sunday than its previous dark-green state, but still very cloudy. Divers hit the water, then disappeared from sight.
On Saturday, Australian Maddison Keeney called the water “pretty gross.”
“You’re standing on the stairs and you can’t see your feet one and half metres down. When you’re standing up there (on the diving platform) it’s a bit off-putting,” she said. “I just try to close my eyes and close my mouth. Hopefully I am going up and not down.”
But Abel said afterward the water wasn’t a big deal.
“No, I still have two arms, two legs,” she said. “And I’m leaving Rio with a smile, so the green water doesn’t matter.
“I’m happy tonight, that’s for sure. I know we will be back in four years with more experience. So I’m not worried for our team.”
That’s Jennifer Abel: not easily disappointed.