World Championships: Osmar Olvera Upstages Chinese to Win 3-Meter
Mexican diver Osmar Olvera outperformed the front-running Chinese duo to interrupt their diving dominance at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships.
Olvera overcame a bad third dive to surge late, scoring 529.55 points over six dives. That bested Cao Yuan, who scored 522.70, and three-time reigning champion Wang Zongyuan, who scored 515.55.
Olvera is by no means a surprise winner. The 21-year-old won 1-meter springboard at the 2024 World Championships in Doha and has eight career Worlds medals, including four in Singapore. He won bronze on 3-meter at the Paris Olympics to go with synchro springboard silver.
Quick Links
But a world title on at an Olympic height is a massive step for the Mexico City native.
“I feel amazing,” Olvera said. “It’s a dream come true, to be a world champion in this dream year, in an Olympic event. And now I am really happy. I’m really satisfied. I got it today, and I’m still working for next year to keep this level, and still fighting with the Chinese divers.”
Photo Courtesy: Singapore 2025/World Aquatics
He had to defeat a difficult field, in four-time Olympic gold medalist and now 11-time World medalist Cao and four-time Olympic medalist and two-time gold winner Wang. The bronze is Wang’s 10th all-time and first non-gold.
Olvera is the first non-Chinese diver to win this event since Canada’s Alexandre Despatie in 2005, ending a streak of 10 straight Chinese champions.
Wang was first and Cao was second in every round of the semifinals. But Olvera got the jump in finals with the best dive of each of the first two rounds. He faltered in Round 3, his 207C getting just 70.20 points, 10th-best in the final. He was third after four rounds.
But then Olvera unleashed the best dive of the final and maybe the meet writ large, scoring 102.60 points on his 109B to catapult from third to first by a half-point over Cao. He added the best dive of the final round, 97.50 points on his 5156B, to seal gold.
“Honestly, that’s one of my goals, to get 100 points in a dive,” he said. “I got it today, and the gold medal, and I am really happy to achieve those two things. (I felt) a lot of pressure (for the sixth dive). I knew I needed a great dive, so I just focused, controlled myself and did my job.”
Cao was third over the first two rounds and led for two rounds, aided by 94.50 points on his 307C in the third round. But his last two dives were only fourth-best in the field. He scored 91.20 in the final round, finishing 6.85 points behind Olvera.
“I’m very satisfied with second place,” Cao said. “It’s also a breakthrough for me. I really want to help the Chinese team win the gold medal, but there may be some details that I didn’t do well enough. For me, second place is actually very satisfying, but I hope to help the Chinese team win the gold medal.”
Wang had the sixth-best dives of the second and third rounds to dig himself a hole. He scored 89.25 in the fourth to stabilize it, but then was seventh-best in the fifth round. Even 96.90 on the final round couldn’t get him closer than 14 points away from Olvera.
“I think I did average in the final, I didn’t do as well as I did in the semi-finals,” Wang said. “I’m disappointed, but of course I must accept it because it has already happened. I’ll look at how to address the issues after the competition.”
Jordan Houlden of Great Britain was fourth with 492.10 points. It was a gap back to Frenchman Jules Bouyer in fifth, then Moritz Wesemann of Germany in sixth.
