Terrified Olympic commentator orders judges to intervene after seeing 'dangerous' dive
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images/OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images
An Olympic diver drew a wave audible gasps from the audience during last night's 10m platform semi-finals - but tragically, for all the wrong reasons.
So much so, that a terror-stricken sporting commentator hurled an array of criticism at judges of this year's competition, imploring them to intervene after the athlete almost suffered a devastating injury.
Following a nail-biting Olympic tournament so far, Italian diver Maia Biginelli last night took to the board in a bid to bag a medal at Paris' Aquatics Centre.
Advert
Within seconds of launching herself into the air, however, the 21-year-old sparked an immediate wave of concern after she appeared to be just inches away from smacking her head against the board.
Amid her attempt to perform a 3.2 difficulty three-and-a-half somersaults inward dive in the tuck position for her third effort of yesterday's (Mon 5 Aug) qualifiers, she narrowly avoided the devastating injury, with her hair was just millimetres from the board.
As well as horrifying members of the colossal audience, Biginelli's near-fatal dive also prompted BBC commentator to call judges to act in penalising the sportswoman to prevent a similarly catastrophic injury in the futute.
Become visibly irate by the lack of immediate action, Leon Taylor - who represented Team GB in diving back in 2004 - yelled live on air: "Judges, you need to do your job now!"
"You didn’t do it this morning. Do your job now," he begged. "That is a dangerous, dangerous dive.
"Her hair hits the diving board, she should be massively penalised for that. Her hair pretty much hits the board."
Springboard diver Taylor - who previously won medals at all major international events including a silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics - went on to demand: "What are you watching from your seats? What are you watching?
"We’ve got a duty of care in this sport to keep athletes safe. You’ve got to penalise. Coaches, you can see that as well."
Shockingly, however, the Italian athlete went on to receive a pretty impressive 41.60 for her performance, with no penalty for the 'dangerous' dive having been inflicted.
By the look on Biginelli's face as she exited the pool, however, it certainly looked as though the diver was more than aware of the error in her ways.
A replay of the rising star's endeavour was subsequently shown to her by her coaches on a small screen.
Another BBC commentator said on the matter: "They’re showing her the replay now so hopefully she can process that herself because that was frightening to watch."